NEW YORK — An NYPD officer is dead and another is in critical condition after they were shot in Harlem Friday evening, police officials said.
The NYPD identified the officer who was killed as Jason Rivera. He was 22 years old. The officer who was wounded was identified by the NYPD as 27-year-old Wilbert Mora.
According to the Associated Press, Rivera joined the force in November 2020, and Mora has been with the NYPD for four years.
Police officials said the shooting happened at around 6:15 p.m. Friday, after three NYPD officers were called to an apartment at 119 West 135th Street for a family dispute.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig, two of the responding officers were headed for the back bedroom of the apartment when the suspect opened the door and fired numerous shots at both of them.
There were conflicting reports on the second officer’s condition throughout the evening. Law enforcement sources initially told NY1 that the second officer was also killed, but sources later said the officer was alive but gravely injured. Officials at a press conference at Harlem Hospital Friday evening said the second officer is in critical condition.
The third officer at the scene was not shot, according to police. Essig said that officer shot the suspect in the head and arm when he tried to escape.
The suspect is alive and hospitalized in critical condition, the NYPD said Saturday morning, correcting earlier reports that he had been killed. Officials did not take questions at the hospital press conference.
Essig identified him as 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, and said he had five prior arrests, including a felony drug conviction in New York City in 2003, and an arrest for assaulting a police officer in Pennsylvania in 2002. Essig said McNeil was on probation for the 2003 conviction.
The Associated Press reported that McNeil's last known address is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of New York City.
A glock-45 high-capacity magazine that can hold up to 40 additional rounds was recovered at the scene, according to Essig, who said the gun was stolen in Baltimore in 2017.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Mayor Eric Adams and PBA President Patrick Lynch delivered emotional speeches at a news conference inside Harlem Hospital Friday evening.
“I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. We’re mourning and we’re angry — the NYPD, New York City, all of us,” Sewell said.
“Our department is hurting. Our city is hurting. It is beyond comprehension. I am not sure what words, if any, will carry the weight of this moment and what we are feeling,” she added.
Adams called for the city to come together in a united front against violence.
“It is our city against the killers,” Adams said. “This was not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York. It is an attack on the children and families of this city.”
“We are not going to win this battle by dividing lines between us. We must save this city together. That is what we must do,” the mayor added.
The mayor asked officers not to give up on the city, and he again called on lawmakers to stop the flow of guns into the five boroughs.
“We need Washington to join us and act now to stop the flow of guns in New York City, and cities like New York,” Adams said. “We have witnessed the failure on the federal level to stop the flow of guns into the city. We are not going to live under the gun of dangerous people in New York City.”
Lynch called on New York City residents to stand by and support the NYPD.
“The streets can’t just be full of New York City police officers at this funeral,” Lynch said. “The public has to come. The public has to send the message to anyone that dares to harm a New York City police officer: not here, not now, not to us.”
“We’re asking, we’re humbly asking to come out and help us,” Lynch added.
The mayor on Saturday ordered all flags on city buildings to be flown at half-staff to honor Rivera, Adams' press secretary said.
Adams then visited the 32nd Precinct in Harlem, where the three officers who responded to the domestic call were assigned.
President Joe Biden on Saturday said in a tweet that he and first lady Jill Biden were "saddened to hear two NYPD officers were shot last night — one fatally."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, meanwhile, went to Harlem Hospital on Saturday to meet with Mora's family.
"I just want to love and pray and hug the family, and let them know that people of faith are with them, and that fear is useless," Dolan said as he was entering the hospital. "What is needed is trust as Jesus told us."
In a letter Rivera sent to the commanding officer of the Police Academy when he was still a probationary police officer in November 2020, Rivera said he “knew this was the career for me.”
“Growing up in Inwood, Manhattan, the community’s relationship between the police and the community was not great,” he wrote, sharing a story about his brother getting stopped and frisked by the police. “My perspective on police and the way they police really bothered me.”
“As time went on, I saw the NYPD pushing hard on changing the relationship between the police and the community. This was when I realized that I wanted to be a part of the men in blue; better the relationship between the community and the police,” he added.
“I would be the first person in my family to become a police officer,” he went on to say. “Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD, the greatest police force in the world.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.