A New York City police officer was killed and another was seriously injured when they opened fire while responding to a home incident.
“Police Officer Jason Rivera was killed in the line of duty when he was just 22 years old,” the NYPD said.
Police named the injured officer as 27-year-old Wilbert Mora, and they said he had surgery. At a news conference on Saturday, Mayor Eric Adams said that Mora was “still fighting for his life” when he asked for an update.
“Prayers are the subject right now. We want people in New York to think about the officer we should always be happy with, “Adams said.
Four to five New York City police officers have been killed in the city this month, officers say. Friday nite was the first time an officer was killed.
They said it happened at 6:15 p.m. in Harlem when officers were going to a home. At a news conference late Friday at Harlem Hospital, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said that a woman called 911 and said she was having a fight with one of her sons inside her house.
Soon after, three NYPD officers came to the house and talked to the mother and another son. Asked by Essig, each of them told two of the cops to go to a room in the back of her house where her son (the suspect) was ready, and they both did that.
“The door swings open and a lot of shots are fired, putting both officers in critical condition,” Essig said. “One of them died, and the other is here at Harlem Hospital.”
Lashawn McNeil was shot in the arm and head by the third officer when he tried to flee, police said. McNeil, 47, was in critical condition at the hospital, police said.
A law enforcement source told CNN that a person who was thought to be involved in the incident had died, but that was not the case.
A source with information about the investigation told CNN on Saturday that the three officers who came to the scene Friday nite had body cameras. The NYPD has gotten all of the videos and is looking at footage from each officer’s body camera, the source said.
Investigators are also looking thru the suspect’s social media accounts as part of the investigation, the source said.
Last year saw the highest number of law enforcement officers who were deliberately killed in the line of duty since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Preliminary information from the FBI shows that 73 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2021, which is about the same number as in 2018. There were no attacks on 9/11, so it was the best record the company had made since 1995, except for that time period.
At the end of November, the FBI said that 55 police officers had been killed by gunfire in 2021, up from 39 in the same time frame in both 2020 and 2019. This is based on the available information.
This is an attack on the town, says its mayor.
Adams, who ordered flags on city buildings to be flown at half staff, said that the shooting Friday nite was an attack on not just police officers, but on the whole city, its kids, and their families.
On Saturday, he said, “This can be a fight between the killers and the people of New York, and we’re not going to lose.”
When Adams, a former police captain, took office on January 1, he said he would not let New York become “a city of chaos.” However, his time in office has been marked by a series of high-profile crimes that have brought attention to the growing problem of crime in the city.
If you look at the rate of growth in the last few months, it has been going up. It isn’t going as quickly as it did in the early nineties. According to the NYPD, the crime rate rose 21.3 percent in November compared to the same time last year. This is the most recent data the city has given us.
In the Democratic primary, public safety became a big issue for candidates. Adams said he was the best person to deal with it because he had worked for the NYPD for more than 20 years.
At his inauguration, he said, “Mission one is to deal with the gun violence in our city.” We need to do this. The first thing you don’t do when you start the new year is bring in violence.
The mayor has also had to deal with other violent crimes this month, including an 11-month-old who was shot in the face when caught in a crossfire on Wednesday in the Bronx and the death of a 40-year-old woman who was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train on January 15 at the Times Square station.
Police said that the attack on the subway was a random one. It took less than an hour for the suspect to turn himself in to police. He was charged with second-degree homicide when he died.
One of Adams’ most important hires was Keechant Sewell, who was the head of detectives in Nassau County, Long Island before that. On Friday nite, she said that the tragedy in Harlem was “out of this world.”
As he lay in his hospital bed, “Please pray for our officer, who is fighting for his life.” And each and every day, I admire the bravery and sacrifice of the women and men of the NYPD.
In 2017, a gun that was used to take pictures was stolen.
It was a Glock 45 with a high-capacity magazine that could hold up to 40 more rounds, police said. The gun was used in the shooting.
One of the guns was stolen from Baltimore in 2017, and the NYPD says it’s working with the Joint Firearms Job Force and the ATF to find it even more.
Federal authorities are looking into the gun’s history and how it ended up in the suspect’s hands. So far, they have been able to trace the weapon back to the place where it was first sold, says a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. The same official said that the original gun dealer went to his store at nite to look for information about how many guns he sold after the ATF called him.
“Make sure I’m clear. New York City doesn’t make guns. Weapons aren’t made right here, “Adams said Friday nite. “How are we taking hundreds of guns off the road, but they still find their way into New York City in the hands of people who are killers?”
On Friday, Adams asked the federal government for help. “We need Washington to join us and act now to stop the flow of weapons into New York City and cities like it,” he said.
In a tweet on Saturday, President Biden said that he and the first woman had been “keeping them and their families in our prayers.”
Almost every day, the president said, “Officers put on their badge and head into harm’s way.” “We’re grateful to them and their families for making such a big deal out of it.”
A lawyer is called a “basic.” Based on a tweet, Merrick Garland sent Sewell his condolences and told her that the Justice Department and the FBI were ready to help. The FBI had already been in touch with their counterparts in the NYPD, he said.
“It has to stop,” the New York FBI office said on Twitter on Saturday, referring to cops being shot. They all deserve to come home all the time.
In a tweet, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called gun violence a disaster in the state and said she would work with Adams and others “to take big steps to make New Yorkers safer.”
All of New York is in mourning because of the shooting, said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement.
As we wait for more information, my workplace may be able to take charge of this case. In our prayers, we ask God to protect both the police and the people they serve, “James said.
New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that “violence against police can’t be tolerated.”
A report by CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Dakin Andone, Shimon Prokupecz, Rob Frehse, Allie Malloy, and Allie Malloy was written by these people.
