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NYPD officer dead, another critically wounded, in Harlem shooting

Saturday, 22 January 2022 6:17 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 January 2022 6:17 AM ]

Emergency personnel respond at the scene where NYPD officers were shot while responding to a domestic violence call in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, January 21, 2022. (By Reuters)

One New York City police officer was killed and another critically wounded in a deadly exchange of fire with a gunman inside an apartment in Harlem.

Law enforcement sources identified the slain officer as 22-year-old Jason Rivera, who had joined the NYPD in 2020. The wounded officer was identified as Wilbert Mora, 27, who has been with the force for four years.

The suspect, identified by police as LaShawn McNeil, 47, was also shot by a third officer at the scene. He survived but was in critical condition.

The officers were responding to a call about a quarrel between a woman and her adult son on Friday. After speaking to the mother, the two officers walked to the back of the apartment, down a narrow hallway toward a back bedroom. That is when McNeil swung the door open and fired, striking both officers, police said.

Rivera was the fourth NYPD officer to be shot on duty in as many days.

Just three weeks into their jobs, New York Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell briefed the media at a Harlem hospital, condemning the spate of violence against the New York Police Department.

"It is our city against the killers!" Mayor Adams said at the press conference. "This was just not an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York."

Adams, a retired police officer himself, is confronted with a spike in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam took office as mayor on January 1 after running on a platform of prioritizing public safety.

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He called for federal authorities to do more to round up stolen guns like the one used in Friday’s shooting in New York City.

“There are no gun manufacturers in New York City,” he said. “We don’t make guns here. How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they still find their way into New York City, in the hands of people who are killers?”

The police said the gun that McNeil had used was reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017 and was equipped with a high-capacity magazine.

On Tuesday, an officer was shot in the leg as he scuffled with a teenager during a confrontation in the Bronx. And early on Thursday, a detective was also shot in the leg when a man fired through a door during a search for drugs at a Staten Island home, officials said.

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