Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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NEW YORK – A few thousand police officers in New York paid an impressive tribute this Wednesday, February 2, to a second officer killed on January 21 in Harlem by a gunman, a symbol of the gun violence that the city’s new mayor wants to curb.
Wilbert Mora, 27, succumbed to his injuries a week ago after being shot with his colleague Jason Rivera on January 21, the young police officers being called for help by the mother of an abusive man .
The New York City Police (NYPD) Chiefs of Staff, Mayor Eric Adams, and political elites from the city and state gathered in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a service in English and Spanish.
Colleagues and loved ones saluted the memory of Wilbert Mora, “a gentle and tender giant” who arrived in the United States at the age of seven from his native Dominican Republic. “He lit up the house just with his smile and that light went out in pain and forever,” his sister Karina Mora whispered.
The ceremony ended with the sound of “God bless America” and bagpipes in the streets, before the funeral procession was honored by a helicopter patrol
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The mother of late NYPD officer Wilbert Mora, who was killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic violence call, reacts following his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City https://t.co/UuJCtwpqcX 📷 Brendan McDermid pic.twitter.com/8dxn1qSlEy
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) February 2, 2022
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Six police officers hit by shootings in New York since January 1
The death of this police officer puts the centre-right Democratic mayor and former African-American police officer on the front line in an attempt to stem gun violence in New York City. “We will win this battle and we will win it together”, launched, martial, Eric Adams, during the religious ceremony.
Since he took office on January 1, at least six police officers have been hit by gunfire – the latest to date overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday was injured in the Queens neighborhood.
The hard line of Eric Adams garners support among New York’s political and economic leaders and the mayor welcomes President Joe Biden on Thursday to discuss the fight against the illegal proliferation of firearms.
In New York, crime figures have increased since the start of the pandemic in 2020 (488 murders in 2021 compared to 319 in 2019) but the number of murders remains 75% lower than 28 years ago, when the city was still a cutthroat, according to NYPD figures.
Police officer Jason Rivera, who died at the age of 22 during the intervention with his colleague Wilbert Mora, was buried on January 29 after a mass and there also an impressive tribute from thousands of uniformed police officers in the heart of Manhattan, along 5th Ave. (see the video below)
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