The New York Police Department says a police officer is dead and another critical after two officers were shot in Harlem. The incident happened around 11:30 p.m., on Wednesday, as the officers responded to calls for help at West 131st Street and Lenox Avenue.
Image
Two police officers were shot outside a building in Harlem on Friday night. Credit… The New York Times’ David Dee Delgado
A shooter opened fire on two New York City police officers inside a Harlem apartment on Friday, killing one and gravely injuring the other, according to the police. According to the police, they were the third and fourth cops shot in the course of duty this week.
Both cops were first declared dead by the police, but one was subsequently found to be in serious condition at Harlem Hospital. Jason Rivera, 22, was a 22-year-old cop who joined the agency in November of 2020, according to the police.
According to police, the shooter, Lashawn McNeil, 47, was shot in the arm and head by a third officer who was present at the location of the incident, an apartment on West 135th Street near Lenox Avenue. According to the authorities, he survived but was in serious condition.
Keechant Sewell, the police commissioner, characterized Cop Rivera as a “22-year-old son, husband, officer, and friend” who had been “killed because he performed what we asked him to do” during a press conference at the hospital where the two policemen had been brought after being shot. He had been assigned to the 32nd Precinct, where the incident happened, since May, according to a department biography.
“I’m at a loss for words to explain the catastrophe we’re going through,” Ms. Sewell added, her voice rising in indignation. She has only been in charge of the country’s biggest police department for a month, like the man who chose her, Mayor Eric Adams.
“We’re both in sadness and outrage,” she remarked.
Mr. Adams, who had previously been in the Bronx for a vigil for a baby who had been injured in the face by a stray gunshot on Wednesday night, spoke at the press conference with a loud voice.
He said, “This was not an assault on three heroic cops.” “This was an assault on New York City” and “an attack on the city’s children and families.”
The officers’ shooting was the latest in a slew of crimes committed early in Mr. Adams’ presidency that have put his pledge to strengthen public safety in the wake of the outbreak to the test. In certain regions of the city, particularly, shootings have increased.
Mr. Adams constructed his campaign on the premise that, as a former police captain and 22-year veteran of the New York Police Department, he was the only Democratic candidate for mayor who could restore order to the city’s streets.
The head of detectives, James W. Essig, described the circumstances surrounding the shooting as follows:
A lady called 911 to report a conflict with her son, and three cops responded. The mom and a second son greeted the cops when they arrived at the flat. Officials claimed there was no indication from the 911 call that there were firearms in the flat.
The lady informed the cops that her son was in a rear bedroom at the end of a long, narrow corridor with whom she had been arguing. As two of the cops approached the bedroom, the door slid open, and Mr. McNeil opened fire. He attempted to flee the apartment after shooting the two cops, but was shot by the third officer.
Tonight, we mourn the loss of a hero officer — a son, husband, and friend. Only 22 years old, Police Officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the line of duty. We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/5zsx45XiM4
— NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (@NYPDnews) January 22, 2022
Officials said Mr. McNeil, 47, was on probation after being jailed in New York in 2003 on a felony narcotics offense. He was also arrested four times in other states, all more than a decade ago, on accusations such as unauthorized weapon possession in South Carolina in 1998 and assault on a police officer in Pennsylvania in 2002.
Mr. McNeil’s pistol, according to authorities, was reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017 and came with a high-capacity magazine.
The tragic shove of a 40-year-old woman into the path of a subway train at Times Square station, the death of a 19-year-old woman shot by a guy stealing an East Harlem Burger King, and the murder of a newborn girl in the Bronx are among the city’s recent rash of violence.
During a confrontation in the Bronx on Tuesday, a cop was shot in the leg as scuffled with a young suspect. A detective was wounded in the leg early Thursday during a search for narcotics at a Staten Island residence when a guy fired through a door, according to authorities. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
The policemen were shot this week after an off-duty officer was shot in the head while resting in a vehicle between shifts outside an East Harlem station house on New Year’s Day. He was taken to a hospital and treated before being discharged.
Lola Fadulu, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Troy Closson, Dana Rubinstein, William K. Rashbaum, and Ali Watkins provided reporting.
The date has been changed to January 22, 2022.
Lashawn McNeil, 47, was wrongly reported to have died after being shot by police in an earlier version of this story. He made it out alive, but his condition was serious. The year the pistol recovered from Mr. McNeil was taken was likewise incorrect in the story. It was 2017 rather than 2007.
