A 22-year-old New York City police officer was killed and another officer seriously injured Friday night during one of the most violent periods in the city’s recent history.
Officer Jason Rivera – who once wrote that he wants to join the NYPD to “improve the relationship between the community and the police force” – was mugged with two other officers while responding to a domestic violence call at a Harlem apartment , the authorities said.
The caller said she needed help with her son, city officials said during a celebratory news conference at Harlem Hospital.
The mother “mentioned no injuries and no weapons” during the 6:15 p.m. call, NYPD detective chief James Essig said.
She and another son met officers when they arrived at the apartment on West 135th Street at Lenox Avenue. She told them her other son was in the back bedroom, the chief said.
As Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora walked down a “very narrow” 30-foot hallway, the bedroom door swung open and ex-con Lashawn McNeil, 47, opened fire, Essig said.
The third officer, who was with the other family members, shot McNeil in the head and arm as he tried to escape and sent him to the hospital, where the press conference eventually took place.
Mora, 27, was also there fighting for his life, the chief said. This resulted in four city police officers being shot while on duty in as many days.
“A son, husband, officer and friend has been killed for doing what we asked him to do,” City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said during the news conference. “I struggle to find the words to express the tragedy we are going through. We mourn and we’re angry — the NYPD, New York City, all of us.”
The pain felt by the officers’ families “no one can put into words,” she said.
McNeil, whose last known address was in Allentown, PA, was reportedly on probation. He was also arrested several times in Pennsylvania, once for assaulting a police officer, Essig said.
No one could say how he got his hands on the Glock 45 – equipped with a high-capacity magazine – which the boss said had been stolen from Baltimore four years ago.
“This just wasn’t an attack on these brave officers,” said Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain. “It was an attack on the city of New York.”
Rivera, who grew up in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood, was on the job for a full 15 months.
After he started, he wrote in a letter to his police academy commander that policing “was the career for me… Coming from an immigrant family, I’ll be the first to say I’m a member of the NYPD, the grandest police of the world.”
He said he also wants to be a part of what he sees as the NYPD’s efforts to change its policies and improve community ties in “this chaotic city.”
“Something as small as helping a tourist with directions or helping a couple solve a problem is going to put a smile on someone’s face,” he wrote.
“Cop Jason Rivera, just 22 years old, was murdered on duty,” the New York City Police Department said in a statement. “We swear #NeverForget Jason, like his best mate, to honor his tremendous legacy of service and ultimate sacrifice.”
Police, firefighters and others lined the streets as a huge line of police vehicles escorted Rivera’s body from the hospital to the city coroner’s office.
Reaction to the senseless tragedy came from inside and outside Gotham.
“Tonight is one of the darkest nights in years,” said Patrick Colligan, New Jersey State PBA President. “The shooting of two NYPD officers tonight leaves us all shaken. One officer was killed, another is fighting for his life.
“They left their homes, kissed their families goodbye and donned their uniforms to protect those they serve, as we all do. We stand with our NYPD brothers and sisters during this most difficult of hours. We’ll be shoulder to shoulder in the days ahead.”
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