Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) went on the record Saturday to deny reports that she was not welcome at the wake of fallen New York Police Officer Jonathan Diller.
Hochul addressed the matter at an Easter event at the governor’s mansion. She confirmed that she left Friday’s reception within 10 minutes after greeting the family and saying a prayer over the casket. As she walked back to her car, Hochul was confronted by a man who was speaking to her while gesturing with emotion.
“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. “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.”
Diller, 31, was shot and killed Monday while performing a traffic stop on an illegally parked car. The suspected shooter, Guy Rivera, 34, had been arrested 21 times before the incident and is now facing murder charges.
Hochul also ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff in light of Diller’s funeral on Saturday. She implied the presence of at least one man who was not pleased to see her.
“People will do what they’re going to do for their own reasons, and I will remain convinced that it was the right thing to do,” Hochul said of her attendance at the wake. “I would do it again, and that’s my job. 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.”
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Former President Donald Trump and New York Mayor Eric Adams attended the Thursday wake. President Joe Biden was coincidentally in New York City for a celebrity-packed fundraiser that day but did not attend the service in Queens.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could not confirm whether Biden had called the Diller family while in New York. She did say the president spoke with Adams over the phone to offer his support.
