Friday evening, this police officer was shot and wounded during an intervention in an apartment in the Harlem district, at the call of a mother confronted with a violent son. His 22-year-old colleague, Jason Rivera, was killed instantly by the shots of the suspect, a 47-year-old man who died of his injuries on Monday.
A total of five police officers – including the two who intervened in Harlem – have been hit by firearms in the megalopolis of nearly 9 million inhabitants since January 1, Eric Adams, a right-wing Democrat and former police officer, elected on security promises.
The elected official, the second African-American mayor in the history of New York, has promised to act more firmly against the proliferation of firearms. On Monday, he notably promised to restore plainclothes police patrols, “anti-crime units“renamed”anti-gun units” which had been deleted in 2020 after the death of the African-American George Floyd, killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.
These police officers were feared, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor (2002-2013), for their controversial searches of young Blacks and Hispanics suspected of carrying weapons.
In addition to attacks on police officers, the largest American city has faced a series of violent acts which have caused a stir in recent days. On January 14, still in the Harlem district, a 19-year-old Puerto Rican was shot dead by a robber in the fast food restaurant where she worked. The next day, a 40-year-old Asian-American woman was killed by a mentally ill homeless man who pushed her onto a subway track as a train entered Times Square station.
On Tuesday, at midday, a 35-year-old man was injured by a gun inside the emergency room of a Bronx hospital, police sources and New York hospitals said.
According to the first elements given by the police, two suspects fled and the victim was not in mortal danger.
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