A rookie New York Police Department officer was shot to death and another is clinging to life after being ambushed during a domestic disturbance call at a Harlem apartment, authorities said.
Jason Rivera was 22 and had been on the job for less than two years, the department said. Wilbert Mora, 27, was in critical condition Monday after being shot in the face. He joined the force in 2018, the NYPD said.
“This is an attack on the city of New York,” said an emotional Mayor Eric Adams. “It is our city against the killers,” Adams said. “We must save this city together. That is what we must do.”
Three officers responded to a call from a mother who said she was arguing with her son and he had threatened her, police said. When Rivera and Mora arrived, they spoke with the mom and a second son, who said 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil was in a back bedroom, according to authorities.
Rivera and Mora walked down a narrow hallway, calling the man’s name, The New York Times reported. Officer Sumit Sulan, who has only been on the job since April, stayed behind to take information from the family, police said.
McNeil emerged from the bedroom and began shooting, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the two cops, police said. As the son tried to run from the apartment, Sulan shot him twice, authorities said. McNeil is hospitalized in critical condition.
The handgun used in the fatal shooting was reported stolen five years ago in Baltimore, where McNeil lives, authorities said. The man had come to stay with his mother while she recuperated from a recent surgery, police said. She told investigators she did not know her son had brought a gun, The Times reported.
“The three officers who arrived at that scene were doing their job. They came to answer a call for service every single day. They were listening to a mother who called needing help for her son,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. “As officers were compassionately trying to provide aid to a 47-year-old man, he suddenly, without warning, opened fire on them. In a moment, a young, 22-year-old life was ended, and another, forever altered.”
Hundreds of New York police officers and firefighters gathered over the weekend in candlelight vigils for the officers. They also escorted Mora Sunday as he was transferred to NYU Langone Health from a Harlem hospital, and accompanied the transport of Rivera’s body to a funeral home.
Condolences poured in from officials and politicians, including President Joe Biden.
A wake for Rivera is scheduled for Thursday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.