A rookie New York City police officer was gunned down Friday night and his partner was clinging to life after responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem. Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was killed in the attack and Officer Wilbert Mora is in critical condition according to multiple media sources.
The Daily Mail reports that initial reports said that both officers were killed.
The gunman, Lashawn J. McNeil, 47 – who was out on probation at the time – was shot and killed by a third officer, after the he tried to flee the house, having shot the other two.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams speaks out from Harlem Hospital on deadly shooting of NYPD Officer, 2nd officer fighting for his life:“It’s our city against the killers. This was not just an attack on 3 brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York.”@ABC7NY @NYCPBA @NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/XB70LS4lAF
— Chantee Lans (@ChanteeLans) January 22, 2022
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York – an ex NYPD officer, who only took office three weeks ago – angrily declared at the Harlem hospital that the violence must stop.
“This is not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York,” Adams declared.
Rivera and Moral were the fourth and fifth officers shot so far this year. In 2021, a total of 10 police officers were shot in the entire state of New York.
Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest municipal police union in the world representing 50,000 active and retired officers, excoriated the city’s leaders for not doing enough.
UPDATE: Info is changing by the minute on the NYPD shooting tonight. It has now been reported 2 officers were shot in the head, but only 1 officer has died. The other was critically wounded and is clinging to life at this hour. Suspect was shot and killed.pic.twitter.com/mutJfjY0kL
— Suburban Black Man 🇺🇸 (@goodblackdude) January 22, 2022
Lynch has been highly critical of the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who announced on taking office at the beginning of the month that he would not prosecute certain crimes.
Lynch said on January 4 that he had ‘serious concerns about the message these types of policies send to both police officers and criminals on the street.’
On Friday night, he was furious, and pointed the finger firmly at Bragg and his policies.
‘Our hearts are broken, we’re in shock, our knees are buckling,’ he said.
‘And we’re angry, because we’ve been here before.
‘We’re angry, because we saw it coming.
‘We’re angry, because we said it would happen – and it happened again.’
Devastating footage showed the officers’ colleagues rushing them to hospital after McNeil – who has been arrestd in three states – opened fire, using a stolen Glock 9mm gun, which was recovered at the scene.
