March 29, 2024 / By mobanmarket
FARMINGDALE, NY — Vice Doughnuts & Coffee of Farmingdale is donating all proceeds of special “Blue Line” doughnuts sold between now and April 7 to the family of fallen NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.
Diller, 31, was a member of the department for three years. He lived in Massapequa Park with his wife and toddler.
Guy Rivera, 34, was accused of fatally shooting Diller during a traffic stop in Far Rockaway on Monday, authorities said. Rivera has been arrested more than 20 times in the city and has nine felonies on his rap sheet, officials said. Rivera was released from prison in September 2021 after serving nearly five years for criminal sale of a controlled substance, ABC7 reported.
Vice Doughnuts & Coffee is owned by husband and wife Joe and Gina O’Brien. Joe is in the Army and FDNY. Gina said her family has a “lot of love and appreciation” for civil servants and was at a loss of what to do for the Diller family.
“Everyone wants to do something,” Gina told Patch. “Everyone wants to do their part. We figured this is the least we can do. We knew for sure we wanted to do 100% of the profits. I can’t in good conscience profit off of that doughnut in any way. It’s an honor.”
Gina said she doesn’t have the words to describe what Diller’s family is going through.
“I don’t think anybody has the words,” she said. “We’re all doing what we can as a community. There hasn’t been an hour that’s gone by since this happened where we haven’t thought about the pain that family must be in. The mother, wife, a child. We wish we could do everything short of turning back time. The community is just shaken, and it won’t be soon forgotten, this tragedy.”
Several of Gina’s best friends have husbands who are police officers, she said. The tragedy hit very close to home, she said, because she realized what happened to Diller could happen to the first responders she personally knows.
“My husband and I, we both felt helpless. ‘What can we do?’ We’re so lucky to have this store where we can give back to people where we can’t necessarily dig into our own pockets and give as much as we would like to, but we can use the community, use the store and drive the community here so we can collectively give back. It’s nice to use our business to do that.”
Gina said as the wife of a first responder and Army member, thoughts always creep into the back of her mind.
“‘I could get a phone call today. My husband is at work. It could happen.’ You obviously pray it doesn’t and you try not to think about it as much as possible,” she said. “But this is the nightmare. Unimaginable pain. That’s the best way to describe it, you know?”
The O’Briens plan to hand a check over to Diller’s family personally.
“We’re really happy about that, because GoFundMes are amazing, but there is always a percentage taken out,” she said. “This is going to go from our bank account to [Diller’s wife’s] bank account, which is really, really nice.”
Vice Doughnuts & Coffee opened at 314 Main Street less than two months ago, though the O’Brien family has already been “so blown away by the love and support” of the Farmingdale community.
“We love our product; we love our coffee, we love our doughnuts, and we knew everyone else would love it,” Gina said. “We’re really excited everyone is enjoying that part. But we’re also so surprised and blown away by the love for our family.”
The O’Briens are the proud parents of four girls.
“Everyone sees the girls here, and everyone sees my husband and I here everyday,” Gina said. “I feel like we have contributed that mom and pop feel back to Farmingdale, whereas so much of business is Amazon and quick. It’s all computerized. You lose that feel for a human behind the product you’re consuming. I feel like that’s something that we’ve brought here. People are really enjoying it, and we’re enjoying it, too. I love meeting people. We meet people every day. We get such amazing feedback. It’s been really awesome. We’re very, very grateful.”
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