NYPD officer dies days after being shot on duty

A memorial for Officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera.

(Image credit: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

published 26 January 2022

Wilbert Mora, a New York City police officer who was shot on Friday while answering a domestic disturbance call with his partner, died Tuesday after being taken off life support.

Mora, 27, had been in critical condition since the shooting. His partner, Officer Jason Rivera, 22, died from his injuries on Friday.

"Wilbert is three times a hero," New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Tuesday. "For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation. Our heads are bowed and our hearts are heavy." In a message to New York Police Department officers, Sewell said their grief is "incalculable," and the days ahead will be "extremely difficult."

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Law enforcement officials say Mora, Rivera, and a third officer, Sumit Sulan, went on a call in Harlem to assist a woman who said she needed help with her son, 47-year-old Lashawn J. McNeil. While the officers were walking down a narrow hallway, officials say McNeil opened a bedroom door and started shooting. Sulan, a rookie officer who was shadowing Mora and Rivera, shot McNeil as he tried to run away; McNeil died on Monday.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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