NYPD officer killed, 2nd critical in shooting

Police say shooter also injured

NEW YORK – A New York City police officer lay in a hospital Saturday after being critically wounded in a shooting in a Harlem apartment that left a fellow officer dead, authorities said.

The man who shot them with a stolen gun was also in critical condition, wounded by a third officer who fired at him as he tried to flee, officials said.

The two officers were shot Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son. Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was killed, and Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, was critically wounded, authorities said.

Police had no update on Mora’s condition Saturday morning but said he remained hospitalized. The man police say shot them, 47-year-old Lashawn J. McNeil, also was critically wounded and hospitalized, authorities said.

Authorities said the three officers went to the apartment after a call came in from a woman needing help with McNeil, her son. Officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon. Rivera and Mora walked from the front of the apartment down a hallway, and McNeil swung open a bedroom door and opened fire, Chief of Detectives James Essig said.

As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer who had stayed with McNeil’s mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, Essig said.

They were among the four officers shot in the city in as many days, prompting an emotional response from Mayor Eric Adams.

“This was just not an attack on these brave officers,” Adams said Friday night. “This was an attack on the city of New York.”

Rivera joined the force in November 2020. Mora has been with the NYPD for four years.

Adams, three weeks into his job, called for federal authorities to do more to round up stolen guns like the one used in Friday’s shooting.

Police said the gun used in Friday night’s shooting, a .45-caliber Glock with a high-capacity magazine capable of holding up to 40 extra rounds, had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017.