Ali Bauman is a New York Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist who has been a general assignment reporter for CBS News New York since spring 2016.
The family of a man killed by a New York City Police officer is speaking out after the police commissioner said she will not fire the officer who shot him, overriding a judge's decision.
In 2019, then-Sgt. Jonathan Rivera and Officer Edward Barrett pulled over 31-year-old Allan Feliz in the Bronx for failing to wear a seatbelt, which he was. The officers ran his ID and discovered arrest warrants.
When the officers moved to pat down Feliz, he tried to drive away. Rivera deployed his Taser and lunged into the car. The car lurched forward, and Rivera shot Feliz in the chest.
The encounter was caught on body cam video.
Earlier this year, an NYPD trial judge found Rivera guilty of first-degree assault and recommended he be fired, but in her preliminary decision Thursday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said she believes the "shooting of Mr. Feliz was justified."
Tisch said she agreed with the attorney general's report in 2020, both concluding the reason Rivera "discharged his firearm was because he believed that doing so was necessary to save Officer Barrett's life."
Feliz's mother, Mery Verdeja, says she is sad and disappointed that Tisch has decided to allow Rivera, who has since been promoted to lieutenant, to stay on the force.
"We think it's a political decision. We think you want to protect your end and you want to protect the NYPD, and that's fine, but your goal should be to protect New Yorkers," said Ashley Verdeja, Feliz's sister. "All we're asking for today is that, just fire Jonathan Rivera. We're not asking for anything else. They already took the worst from us."
Former NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher says it's rare for the NYPD commissioner to disagree with the judge's findings in trials like this.
"The NYPD's administrative judge is not the boots on the ground. They receive information in the courtroom," he said. "The state attorney general's office is an actual boots-on-the-ground unit that goes to the scene of where these shootings occur. They interview witnesses, they review body cam, and they make an assessment."
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which initially brought up the charges against Rivera, has until Friday to respond before the commissioner makes her final decision. A spokesman for the CCRB said the oversight board is preparing their response and are hopeful to persuade the commissioner to uphold the judge's finding.