A 27-year-old New York police officer is clinging to life for the third day in a row Sunday after a suspect shot him and a partner in Harlem Friday night while they were responding to a domestic violence call.
The shooting left 22-year-old Officer Jason Rivera dead.
According to several senior officials with direct knowledge of the investigation, the accused suspect, Lashawn McNeil, has a history of increasingly rabid beliefs in anti-government conspiracy theories.
Officials are also investigating the possibility that McNeil continued to fire after the officers fell wounded, and before he charged down a hallway and was shot.
Wilbert Mora, 27, was seriously injured. New York police confirmed Sunday that he would be transferred from Harlem Hospital, where he was initially taken Friday, to New York University Langone Medical Center.
“He’s fighting, he’s fighting hard and holding on,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday at a news conference after a roundtable discussion on gun violence in the Bronx.
A Glock .45 handgun was recovered at the scene, with an extended magazine containing up to 40 additional rounds. Police said the gun was stolen in Baltimore in 2017.
In addition to the gun he was firing, sources say another gun was found under his bed. Sources previously said that McNeil’s mother had told police she was unaware that he had weapons in the apartment.
SHOOTING TIMELINE
Three uniformed officers responded to a domestic disturbance call around 6:15 p.m. on West 135th Street by a mother who said she was fighting with her son, according to police. She did not mention any injuries or any weapons on the call.
According to an official, the fight was strictly verbal and not physical in nature, and likely would have led to nothing more than a written report.
After officers arrived, they went to a back room, where the suspect fired multiple shots as they approached the door. The man then tried to flee the apartment but was confronted by the third officer, who shot him twice.
Both officers were rushed to hospital, where one was pronounced dead, police said. Early Saturday morning, the department identified the deceased as Officer Jason Rivera of the 32nd Precinct.
The other officer, Wilbert Mora, 27, was seriously injured and is in critical condition at Harlem Hospital, undergoing surgery in an effort to save his life.
Police initially said the suspect, 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, was shot and pronounced dead at the scene. However, they later made a correction and said that McNeil did not die, but was taken to hospital and was in critical condition. He is not expected to survive his injuries, senior NYPD officials said.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE SUSPECT
The alleged shooter had a prior arrest in New York for a felony and four more arrests out of state.
Lashawn McNeil, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was arrested for narcotics in New York City in 2003, for which he was still on probation.
He also has four arrests outside of New York City. McNeil was arrested in South Carolina for illegal possession of a weapon in 1998.
The rest of his arrests have taken place in Pennsylvania. He was arrested for assaulting a police officer there in 2002, and in 2003 he was arrested for felony drug and misdemeanor narcotics.
It was not immediately clear why McNeil was in the apartment, or if he had been staying there. He remains in critical condition at Harlem Hospital.
AUTHORITIES CRITICIZE ACT OF VIOLENCE
The incident was caught on officers’ body cameras, a senior police official said.
“While we await developments, my office will exercise jurisdiction in this matter,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
At the same time, the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams, offered an emotional press conference in front of Harlem Hospital, where both officers were intervened.
“Normally when we do briefings like this, it’s just police officers who stand at this podium. I didn’t want that tonight. I wanted everyone to be in the same room. I wanted everyone to be here to understand: It’s our city. against the murderers,” he said.
“This was not just an attack on three brave officers, this was an attack on New York City. This is an attack on the children and families of this city,” he added.
INITIAL DATA CONFUSION
The uniformed agency initially reported that the officers’ injuries were not life-threatening, but later revealed that both were in critical condition and were clinging to life while receiving medical care at Harlem Hospital.
Some media outlets reported that both officers died in the line of duty, but Mayor Eric Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy tweeted that information was not confirmed by the NYPD or the hospital.
