Remembering their Brothers in Blue: Fellow NYPD cops break down as they pay tribute to slain officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora at packed Harlem vigil

New York City’s cops have paid emotional tribute to their Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora as hundreds gathered to publicly mourn the passing of their Brothers in Blue on Thursday.

Rivera, 22, and Mora, 27, were shot after being ambushed by career criminal Lashawn McNeil, 47, during a callout over a family dispute in Harlem on Friday.

Medics battled to save Mora who passed away from his injuries at NYU Langone. Rivera, who had been with the force just over a year, died at the scene.

Hundreds of mourners turned out at a makeshift vigil at the NYPD’s 32nd precinct on Wednesday evening to pay their respects to Rivera, with funeral Mass to be held at the same venue on Friday.

Friends this week have remembered the pair as caring and dedicated. Mora was described as a ‘gentle giant’, while Rivera was known to be a doting newlywed who would FaceTime his wife from his locker. 

Pictures from Wednesday evening showed fellow officers and members of the FDNY in floods of tears as they shared tributes to their fallen colleagues. 

NYPD Officer Sterling Medina, who spoke at the makeshift vigil outside the 32nd precinct, was overcome with emotion as he shared his own memories of his close friend Mora.  

Hundreds of mourners turn up to a makeshift memorial outside the 32nd precinct honoring fallen NYPD officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora in Harlem, New York on Wednesday 

A candlelit vigil is held around a makeshift memorial outside the 32nd precinct honoring fallen NYPD officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora in Harlem, New York

NYPD Officer Sterling Medina, center, grows emotional while remembering his fallen fellow officers at a vigil outside the 32nd precinct honoring officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora in Harlem, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022, in New York

Jason Rivera (left), 22, who joined the NYPD a little over a year ago, was shot and killed on Friday night and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, who signed up in 2018, died on Tuesday after fighting to recover in hospital

Officer Medina told the crowd that Mora’s smile ‘lit up a room’. ‘To know that we’re not gonna get that again, it hurts,’ an emotional Medina added before his grief overcame him.  

Officer Charlie Ruiz-Reyes, another close colleague of Mora’s, choked up as he spoke of his regret at not being with the two officers when they were attacked by career criminal Lawshawn McNeil.  

A guard of honor gathered to salute the hearse transporting murdered officer Mora on Wednesday as the 27-year-old was taken to a funeral home in preparation for the final farewell. 

There have been 73 shootings so far this year in the city – an increase of 23.7 percent on last year. A total of 82 people have already been shot, up from 67 in the first three weeks of 2021.

Rivera and Mora became the first officers to be fatally shot in the city since July 2017. 

Their killer, Lashawn McNeil- whose mother had called the officers to her home reporting that he was threatening her – was shot in the head by a third officer and died on Monday. 

In the wake of the fatal shootings, President Joe Biden will visit New York City next week to discuss new measures to combat gun violence with Mayor Eric Adams. 

Earlier this week, and just days after the two officers were shot, Adams announced a plan to stem gun violence that includes stepping up efforts to seize illegal guns.

The mayor also wants the police department to use facial recognition and other technology to identify people carrying weapons, expand cash rewards for tipsters who share information on gun-related crimes and for the city to help businesses pay to install surveillance cameras.

The White House said Biden planned during the Feb. 3 meeting to discuss his administration’s ‘comprehensive strategy’ to combat gun crime, including increased funding for cities and states to hire more police officers and pay for community violence prevention and intervention programs.

The strategy also includes beefing up federal law enforcement efforts against gun traffickers, the White House said.  

President Joe Biden will travel to New York City next week to discuss gun crime with the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, in the aftermath of a fatal shooting of two NYPD officers

Rev. Ronald Sullivan (center) leads a prayer during a vigil in Harlem outside the 32nd precinct honoring fallen NYPD officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, Wednesday

Jason and Dominique Rivera were married on October 9, 2021 and had some pictures taken in New Jersey. The widow mourned the loss of her husband on Instagram

Rivera and Mora were part of the newest generation of NYPD officers, one increasingly reflective of the city’s diversity. 

As youths, they saw the end of ‘broken windows’ policing that treated low-level offenses as a gateway to bigger crimes.

They saw the court-ordered reduction in officers’ use of a tactic of routinely stopping young men and searching them for weapons.

After growing up in a Dominican neighborhood in Manhattan, Rivera was no stranger to the tensions between New York City cops and some of the communities they police.  

Marisa Caraballo, a former neighbor of the Rivera family, said the officer´s mother objected when he told her he wanted to join the police.

‘She said it was a dangerous situation,’ recalled Caraballo. But the son insisted, and his mom relented. ‘She said, `OK. I support you.´’

At a vigil Wednesday night outside the precinct house where Rivera and Mora worked, hundreds of their fellow officers and scores of people from the community filled the street.

Stephanie McGraw, founder of anti-domestic violence group We All Really Matter, said she got to know Mora during frequent visits to the 32nd precinct.

‘He was from from the hood,’ McGraw said. 

‘He understood the importance of getting into this very crucial and important role as a police officer – to not only make a difference but to bring some more men and women of color into the NYPD.’

Lashawn McNeil, 47, who was shot by a third officer, Sumit Sulan, has since succumbed to his injuries and died on Monday

Rivera grew up in Inwood, a neighborhood on the northern tip of Manhattan where many residents hail from the Dominican Republic.

‘Officer Rivera and Officer Mora made a decision that they wanted to be part of the solution,’ said the Rev. Ronald Sullivan of the Christian Parish for Spiritual Renewal. ‘We´re not believing the narrative that the community and the police are on different teams.’

In an essay describing why he became a police officer, Rivera recalled the injustice of being pulled over in a taxi and seeing officers frisk his brother.

‘My perspective on police and the way they police really bothered me,’ Rivera wrote. But he said he got interested in becoming a cop himself because he saw the department ‘pushing hard’ to improve community relations.

Today’s NYPD is 45% white, 30% Hispanic and nearly 10% Asian. Black New Yorkers, who account for nearly a quarter of the city´s population, make up just 15% of its police force. The city’s newly appointed police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, is the first woman and third Black person to lead the department.

Officer Keith Hall, who worked with the slain officers, recalled how Mora´s imposing frame – tall and stocky like a football player – belied his approachable nature.

Before joining the department, Mora studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he impressed professor Irina Zakirova with sharp questions and a keen interest in striving for ways to build bridges between police and the neighborhoods they serve.

Wilbert Mora’s remains are driven in an ambulance through Manhattan on Wednesday from the medical examiner’s office to the funeral home in Inwood

Members of the NYPD line the route in Manhattan as Mora’s ambulance passes

Officers salute as the ambulance passes on Wednesday, on its journey through Manhattan

‘He was so certain about becoming a police officer – a good police officer,’ Zakirova said.

After it became clear that Mora wouldn’t survive the shooting, his family had his organs donated – in accordance with his wishes. Mora helped save five people with his heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas.

Rivera’s wife, Dominique Rivera, posted on Instagram that she and her husband were friends since childhood. 

She shared a message he wrote her in their school days saying he loved her and wanted to marry her. 

After their wedding last October, Dominique wrote that Rivera was her ‘soulmate, best friend and lover from now until the end of time.’

‘But now your soul will spend the rest of my days with me, through me, right beside me,’ Dominique wrote over a picture of her husband’s police station locker. ‘I love you till the end of time.’