New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing controversy after an incident that occurred during the wake of slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller on Friday. While attending the wake, she was confronted by a member of the officer’s family over her support of the state’s bail reform laws that resulted in the officer’s death.

While speaking at a Saturday Easter event at the governor's mansion, she defended her decision to attend the wake and insisted that she was not kicked out of the venue. “No one told me to leave,” she said, insisting that her attendance “was the right thing to do.”

The governor affirmed that she “would do it again” and asserted that her job “is to be there when people need me.”

However, other reports contradict Hochul’s claims about being ejected from the proceedings.

On Friday afternoon, during the second day of the wake held for fallen NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, New York's Governor was asked to leave. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) arrived at the viewing ceremony at Massapequa Funeral Home on Long Island around 1:45 p.m.

According to law enforcement sources, she was only in attendance for about 10 minutes before she was asked to leave. An individual was heard saying, “Get her outta here,” from inside the crowded funeral home.

On her way to her car, the governor appeared to be confronted by a man in a black suit, who gestured while speaking intensely. Several law enforcement officers waiting outside the funeral home clapped as he walked away.

🚨BREAKING: NY Governor Hochul asked to leave wake for slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.

Hochul was only in the venue for about 10 minutes before she was spotted in a clash with a man in a black suit.

Several cops waiting outside the funeral home then clapped as he walked… pic.twitter.com/yffVcJn2aC

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) March 29, 2024

Officer Diller was murdered during a routine traffic stop by an individual who had been arrested 21 times previously. The incident ignited debate over the city’s soft-on-crime policies, specifically bail reform. One of the people involved in the murder was freed on a gun charge in 2023. The tragic incident has also placed a spotlight on the governor and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

As the governor heads toward reelection in 2026 and more immediately tries to help Democrats in key House races this year, she has increasingly pursued policies that seek to embolden her as tough on crime. That has included deploying the National Guard into the subways and touting her work to strengthen the bail laws — despite her losing support around those issues during her close 2022 election.

She has also sought to blame the 2019 bail reform package on her predecessor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for whom she served as lieutenant governor before he resigned in scandal in 2021.

Despite those efforts, Hochul has continued to face pushback for the policies Republicans perceive as soft-on-crime, and the frustration around the issue came to a head amid Diller’s murder and her attendance at the wake, which a day earlier was visited by former President Donald Trump.

Former President Donald Trump, who also visited the funeral home, called for more robust policies to curb crime. “We have to get back to law and order. We’ve got to toughen it up,” he said.