On Friday, New Yorkers attended the wake for 31-year-old Jonathan Diller, the city’s first police officer to die on the job since 2022.
Visitors included big names like former President Donald Trump, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Of course, some guests seemed more welcome than others.
Hochul, a Democrat, was unwelcome and forced to leave in an interaction caught on video — and the crowd cheered as she was removed.
The New York Post identified the heckler as one of Diller’s family members. The heckler even earned a round of applause, according to the outlet.
One witness even told the outlet that Hochul had an “animated” conversation with Diller’s 29-year-old widow.
“It didn’t look like the widow had a kind word to say,” the witness said. “Like she was telling [Hochul] off.”
Hochul reportedly asked the NYPD’s permission to attend the wake. All week, she’s defended her appearance.
“I would do it again, and that’s my job,” Hochul said Saturday at an Easter event. “My job is to be there when people need me. If they need to talk to me, and they all needed to talk to me, my job is to listen.”
Hochul recalls saying “prayers at the casket” and remaining “very respectful” inside the building.
But despite video evidence, Hochul denied reports about being asked to leave.
“We always ask: ‘Would the families like us there?’ If the families say, ‘No, this is the time for our personal family grieving, we don’t want a politician there,’ we don’t go,” Hochul said Saturday.
“In this case, we asked. We were told the family is welcoming. We always check, and they said to come, and I went. And no one told me to leave.”
Take a look at the video of Hochul —
Diller was shot dead at a traffic stop in Queens late last month.
One of the suspected shooters had previously been arrested on gun charges, only to be released in April 2023.
Critics have encouraged the state to mandate cash bail for more kinds of offenses to prevent catch-and-release fiascos. Hochul herself has blamed the previous governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, for limiting cash bail only to the most serious crimes.
“I think everyone knows my positions on the bail laws,” Hochul said Saturday. “I’m the one who’s been trying to make the changes to go back to where it was.”
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., told local media after Hochul’s appearance, “I’m angry that this continuing, revolving door of criminal justice is allowing people to be hurt.”
Stephanie Diller, newly widowed, made a similar remark at a service on Saturday.
“It’s been two years and two months since Detective Rivera and Detective Mora made the ultimate sacrifice — just like my husband, Jonathan Diller,” Diller, the mother of a 1-year-old infant, said Saturday.
“Dominique Rivera stood before all the elected officials present today pleading for change. That change never came. And now my son will grow up without his father, and I will grow old without my husband. And his parents have to say goodbye to their child.”
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.