Allan Feliz

On the afternoon of 17 October 2019, Bronx cops—Jonathan Rivera, Edward Barrett, and Michelle Almanzar—pulled over unarmed Allan James Feliz for an alleged seat-belt violation. In less than two minutes the 31-year-old Feliz had been beaten, tased and shot point blank in the chest. Barrett then yanked Feliz’s limp body out of the car, exposing his genitals in front of a crowd of cameras, handcuffed him and stood on top of him while he bled out. It took the cops seven hours to get their stories straight before they told Feliz’s family that their son, brother and father of a five-month-old son was dead.

For nearly seven years, Feliz’s family and supporters, including the Justice Committee, have been calling for the indictment and firing of Rivera, the cop who shot Allan. They have faced years of delay and obstruction: Attorney General Letitia James ruled that “no criminal charges are warranted;” the NYPD dragged its internal investigation out past the statute of limitations for a disciplinary hearing; Rivera—who had already been charged with 34 allegations of misconduct—was promoted to lieutenant, a gut punch to those demanding to “bring to light the truth to what happened.”

In May 2023 the Civilian Complaint Review Board recommended that the NYPD hold a hearing and fire Rivera. Outrageously, it took the NYPD another 14 months to even serve those CCRB charges on Rivera. In February 2025, an NYPD disciplinary trial determined Rivera violated department protocol. Finding that Rivera’s depiction of events not credible, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado determined that he was guilty of excessive force and first-degree assault and recommended that he should be terminated.

Then, on July 3, 2025, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch made a preliminary determination to overrule the NYPD trial, concluding that Rivera would not face any discipline. A statement issued by Feliz’s family declared: “We are furious and devastated by Commissioner Tisch’s outrageous, cowardly, and shameful decision…. With this reversal, Tisch has made one thing unmistakably clear: Her allegiance is not to the people of New York, but to violent, unaccountable cops who terrorize our communities.” In August, Tisch finalized her ruling and protected her cops.

Today the family continues to fight to fire killer cop Rivera. In October 2025, they filed a landmark Article 78 lawsuit Samy Feliz v Jessica Tisch challenging Tisch’s decision. A ruling on the lawsuit is pending.

Among the 40 misconduct complaints (five confirmed) and 7 lawsuits against killer cop Rivera is the 2013 shooting of Keston Charles, an unarmed black teenager. Rivera shot at Charles 16 times during a chase, including after he raised his hands to surrender. Rivera should have been fired and jailed back then. But instead, he was kept on the force and went on to kill Allen Feliz. In April 2026 the CCRB was proceeding against Rivera for yet another violation, this time issuing an “unlawful summons” to an unidentified black male. But the CCRB suddenly reversed course and allowed Rivera to plea bargain so his punishment would just be forfeiting 20 days of vacation! Samy Feliz, brother of Allan Feliz, responded to this news by saying: “CCRB, why the sudden reversal?... NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the Lieutenants Union, and now even the CCRB have bent over backwards to protect Lt. Rivera. The only way to understand the CCRB’s plea bargain is as a backroom deal with the NYPD and Mamdani Administration aimed at letting him off the hook.” Twenty elected officials have signed a letter calling on Mamdani to direct Tisch to fire Rivera, something Mamdani claimed to support before he was elected Mayor. To date, there has been no response from City Hall or Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Police stops of blacks and Latinos for minor infractions like alleged unfastened seatbelts—leading to brutal beatings or death—has become epidemic. Enough! Samy Feliz has endorsed the campaign to open all police archives in cases of police brutality. All the NYPD and CCRB files on killer cop Rivera should be open to public scrutiny. Fire and jail him! Open the archives!