It’s been nearly a month since NYPD officer-now-detective Jonathan Diller was shot and killed in the line of duty in Far Rockway. His death is reigniting the call for a trauma hospital on the peninsula. 

A makeshift memorial for Diller reminds Charles Dominguez of what could have been. Police rushed Diller to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, 9 miles away, and doctors were unable to save him. 

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital is just three blocks away from the shooting, but it lacks the services needed to treat a gunshot wound.

“The community has been constantly asking, demanding for a trauma hospital,” said Dominguez, a longtime Rockaway resident. “When I heard the story about the officer, I just thought, again? It’s kinda the same repetitive tragedies.”

There are no Level 1 trauma centers in the Rockaways since Peninsula Hospital closed nearly a decade ago. Level 1 trauma centers have the full range of services needed to treat any kind of trauma injury.

"We are in a health care desert,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez also believes the death of his mother in September 2022 could have been avoided had she had access to a trauma hospital in the community.

“If they would have brought her to a better-equipped trauma hospital, you know, they would have caught her condition on time and she would have been saved,” Dominguez said.

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is the closest Level 1 trauma center for the Rockaways. That could mean a 30-minute drive. For kids, there's Cohen Children’s Medical Center, which could mean a 40-minute drive to New Hyde Park in Queens.

"To not have the proper facilities, on our peninsula, which is very big, from Beach 9th all the way to Breezy Point, is really dangerous,” said Scott Ruscillo, corresponding secretary with the NYPD's 100th Precinct Community Council.

Ruscillo volunteers as a liaison between the police and the community, which is growing. Census data says the population grew by 8% from 2010 to 2020.

"As our community continues to grow and we welcome new families in, we want to make sure that we have a health care system that’s able to meet the needs in times of crisis,” Queens City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers said.

Brooks-Powers started the Far Rockaway Trauma Healthcare Access Task Force in 2022 to a find a solution. She says the cost to build a Level 1 trauma hospital in the Rockaways could be as high as $200 million. The City Council wants that funding in the mayor's budget.

Whether that looks like a trauma center added onto St. John’s or a brand-new facility, advocates like Dominguez say it's a necessity.

“Whether it’s a police officer or a kid in the project that gets shot, we’ve been demanding politicians to please hear us out,” Dominguez said.

Brooks-Powers says her task force has visited several sites where they could break ground for a possible Level 1 or Level 2 trauma facility. She says the task force will release their final report in the coming weeks.