‘IF I KNEW, I NEVER WOULD’VE CALLED’
Cop-killer’s mom bares her torment over fateful 911 plea
The mother of cop-killer Lashawn McNeil told The Post on Monday that she wished she had never made the 911 call that led two NYPD officers to walk into his deadly ambush.
Shirley Sourzes said she was distraught thinking about the parents of rookie NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, who was slain in the Friday-evening attack, and Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, who was gravely wounded.
“If I knew, I never would have made the phone call,” said the mom, whose plea to 911 about her mentally unstable son brought the officers to the Harlem apartment where McNeil shot them. “I would never have called!” Sourzes also tearfully addressed the parents of Rivera.
“I would like to say to Mr. and
Mrs. [Rivera] that I am deeply sorry,” she said. “I know that there is not words that I can express. Your pain. Your sorrow.
“Me and my family are not proud of my son’s taking of life. There is nothing I can say to heal your sorrow, but God is a comforter . . . And I know that he sent your son to do his will.
“I don’t understand it. It’s not fair. My heart goes out to you and your family.”
‘Hope he burns in hell’
Sourzes spoke to The Post hours before McNeil, 47, died from wounds he sustained in Friday’s confrontation with cops. The family later declined to comment on McNeil’s death.
Mayor Adams confirmed the felon’s death at a briefing.
A veteran cop told The Post, “I hope he burns in hell.”
McNeil had been in critical condition after being shot in the head and arm by at least one cop.
Mora had fired off a round in the encounter with McNeil, while a third officer fired twice, a highranking police official said on Monday. It was unclear whose bullets hit McNeil.
A law-enforcement source said he had been declared brain dead.
Before his rampage, McNeil had been entrenched in anti-authority conspiracy theories and even thought he was God, according to law enforcement.
His mother said on Monday that it was those delusions that had prompted her to try to push him to get mental help.
“I told him to submit himself to help,” Sourzes said. “At this point, his mental state was incapacitated. He thought he was God, and he wouldn’t submit himself to no one.”
Sources have said McNeil also was generally angry at his
mother, including over the fact that he was blind in his left eye.
Sourzes said she had nothing to do with the impairment.
“This happened years ago,” she said. “He had a fixation on guns. At age 21, in Edgemere [Queens], he had a shootout with the Regulators. They are a gang. He shot off a BB gun, and they beat him in the eye with a bottle.”
‘Horrific’ attack
McNeil had been living in Baltimore, and his mother said she drove down to Maryland in November to bring him back to New York City.
According to a law-enforcement source, the mother and son began arguing on the drive back to New York over McNeil’s mental state, his penchant for conspiracy theories and his affinity for guns.
But Sourzes needed McNeil to come up to help care for his older brother, Hakim, who she said suffered from “lymphoma of the brain” and recently underwent surgery.
Hakim had been living in the Harlem apartment where the cops were shot.
After Friday’s bloodshed, Sourzes told police that she did not know McNeil, who used an illegally modified 9mm Glock handgun, was armed.
McNeil also had an AR-15 loaded with 20 bullets stashed between his mattress and box spring, the high-ranking police official said. The weapon was legally bought in Michigan.
The official added that McNeil had no history as an emotionally disturbed person in the city and that authorities were unaware of any documentation of mentalhealth issues with him.
Rivera and Mora were responding to what appeared to a “run-ofthe-mill domestic call” when they arrived at the Harlem apartment, the official said.
Cops and sources have said McNeil opened fire on the officers in a rear bedroom, continuing to shoot even as they lay wounded.
One veteran cop who saw bodycam footage of the attack called it “horrific’’ on Monday.
“It’s bad. They open that door, and he’s just standing there, and he shoots the first cop. Then he steps over him, and he keeps shooting at him,” the cop said, adding that McNeil is then seen shooting the second officer.
Rivera was declared dead that night, but Mora remained in critical condition at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan on Monday, fighting for his life.
“He’s a great guy,” said Luis Millan, the superintendent of Mora’s apartment building in East Harlem. “I saw him Friday around 2 p.m. before he went to work. That’s the day everything happened.
“He was just trying to do good for the community.”
“I spoke with his father on Saturday morning,” Millan added. “His father broke down on me. The parents are heartbroken.”
One longtime tenant of the building, Mirta Mangual, called Mora “a beautiful boy.”
“Nobody knew he was a police officer,” Mangual said. “I think he wanted to keep that private. The family are beautiful people.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore and Jack Morphet