1 officer killed, 2nd wounded in Harlem shooting

NEW YORK — The 22-yearold New York City police officer who was shot to death while responding to a call in a Harlem apartment came from an immigrant family and grew up in a community with strained police relations, but joined the force to make a difference in the “chaotic city,” he once wrote.

“I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple resolve an issue, will put a smile on someone’s face,” Jason Rivera wrote to his commanding officer in 2020 when he was a probationary police officer. Rivera joined the force in November 2020.

Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora were shot Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son. Mora, 27, was critically wounded and “fighting for his life” Saturday, Mayor Eric Adams said.

The man police say shot them, Lashawn McNeil, 47, also was critically wounded and hospitalized, authorities said.

The shooting is the latest in a string of crimes that have unnerved the nation’s largest city.

In the three weeks since Adams took office, a 19-yearold cashier was shot to death as she worked a late-night shift at a Burger King, a woman was pushed to her death in a subway station, and a baby was critically injured when she was hit by a stray bullet as she sat in a parked car with her mother. With the Harlem shooting Friday night, four police officers had been shot in as many days.

The city is recovering from its deadliest fire in three decades, a Bronx apartment blaze that killed 17 people.

Police said the gun used in Friday night’s shooting, a .45caliber Glock with a highcapacity magazine capable of holding up to 40 extra rounds, had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017. Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul both said federal authorities need to do more to round up stolen guns like the one used in the Harlem shooting.

Authorities said the three officers went to the apartment after a call came in from a woman needing help with McNeil, her son.

Rivera and Mora walked from the front of the apartment down a hallway, and McNeil swung open a bedroom door and opened fire, Chief of Detectives James Essig said.

As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer 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.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images Members of the National Action Network join clergy and residents for a vigil against gun violence at the scene in Harlem where two New York City police officers were shot, one fatally.