Jan 6 police officer slams ‘opportunistic grifter’ Trump as former president hails ‘law and order’ at NYPD cop’s wake

Donald Trump is facing criticism after attending the wake of slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller even as he’s pushing for the pardoning of January 6 rioters who battled with US Capitol and Washington DC police officers just over three years ago.

Mr Diller was shot and killed as he was doing traffic stops this week. On Monday, he approached a car that was illegally parked with a fellow officer. The suspects in the car – Lindy Jones and Guy Rivera – refused to roll down the windows or to move their car. They also didn’t show their hands when asked to. Mr Rivera allegedly then shot Mr Diller, who died after being taken to hospital.

At the age of 42, Aquilino Gonell had to retire from his career as a police officer because of the injuries he sustained on January 6, 2021 during the insurrection.

In a statement to The Independent on Thursday, Mr Gonell said of Mr Trump: “As the opportunistic grifter that he is, he claims to support the police, law and order, the rule of law yet, he has not met with any officers from Capitol Police who were injured and assaulted or the ones that lost their lives because of his actions and inaction in his attempt to cling to power and the mob that he incited and wanted to lead.”

On Thursday, speaking to the press after attending Mr Diller’s wake, Mr Trump said, “What happened is such a sad, sad, sad event – such a horrible thing. And it's happening all too often and we're just not going to let it happen. We just can't”.

Mr Gonell went on to tell The Independent that “this is the same person who calls the rioters ‘patriots, political prisoners, and hostages’ instead of calling them for what they are… convicted criminals”.

“Imagine Trump calling the criminal who killed this officer in NYC ‘a