Funeral service for NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora
The funeral for fallen NYPD officer Wilbert Mora began Wednesday morning, just hours after the sixth cop shot so far this year in New York City was wounded during an attempted carjacking.
Mora’s flag-draped casket was transported to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan Tuesday, as mourners gathered for the 27-year-old’s wake. Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell are among those expected to deliver eulogies at the funeral.
Thousands of law enforcement officers gathered outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral last week for the funeral for Mora’s 22-year-old partner, officer Jason Rivera.
Rivera and Mora were fatally wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Harlem on Jan. 21. Rivera died that night, Mora days later.
The suspect, Lashawn J. McNeil, was shot by a third officer at the scene and later died from his injuries.
Speaking at her husband’s funeral last week, Rivera’s widow, Dominique Luzuriaga Rivera, called out newly elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and a system that “continues to fail us.”
President Biden is expected to visit New York City Thursday to meet with Adams and discuss gun violence.
So far this year, six NYPD officers have been shot, two of them fatally.
The same day as Mora’s wake, an off-duty 22-year-old cop was shot during an attempted carjacking in Queens Tuesday night. His injuries are not expected to be life-threatening, police said.
Sewell and Adams were at Jamaica Hospital early Wednesday for a press conference about the incident.
The mayor called on lawmakers to “do their job,” describing how officers are “watching a revolving door of violent people” return to the streets.
“This young man was on his way to work. On his way to protect New Yorkers from criminals like the two who were arrested today,” Sewell said, hours before she was expected to speak at Mora’s funeral. “The police department is well past standing at podiums telling people there are too many illegal guns on the street and far too many people carrying them ready to pull the trigger.”
The officer was in his personal vehicle on his way to work and stopped at a traffic light when two males, one armed with a handgun, approached his car around 10:18 p.m. They intended to rob the driver, police said. The officer exited the car, and one suspect fired, striking the officer in a shoulder.
The officer returned fire but did not strike anyone, police said. The two males fled on foot.
Uniformed officers from the 100th Precinct heard the sound of gunfire and rushed to the scene, began rendering aid to the wounded officer and radioed a description out of the suspects.
Three blocks away, officers attempted to pull over two males matching the description. As officers approached the vehicle, one of the suspects fired a single bullet that struck the unmarked patrol car. Officers did not return fire and apprehended the suspects after a brief foot pursuit, police said.
“The officers who responded to this incident after being fired upon continue to do their job,” Adams told reporters at the hospital early Wednesday. “Out of all the frustration they’re receiving of watching a revolving door of violent people, these officers every day put on their uniforms, put that shield on their chests, put that bulletproof vest on and go back into the streets. With all of that frustration, they still go back and do their job. Now it’s time for lawmakers to do their jobs.”
“On Thursday, we are going to have the President of the United States here in our city, and we are going to lay out clear items on the federal level, just as we did with state lawmakers,” the mayor continued. “Everyone must be on the same team.”
Source: Read Full Article
