Opinion
Harlem ‘ambush’: NYPD Officer Jason Rivera honored at vigil: ‘Violence won’t divide us’
Holding candles, holding one another’s palms and holding onto hope, a whole bunch of mourners gathered Saturday evening exterior the New York Metropolis police precinct the place rookie Officer Jason Rivera labored earlier than he was gunned down within the line of responsibility Friday.
He was 22 years outdated.
“Violence received’t divide us. It can unite us,” Mayor Eric Adams advised the mourners exterior the thirty second Precinct in Harlem, based on WCBS-TV in New York Metropolis.
Adams mentioned he was dedicated to getting unlawful weapons off town’s streets. Rivera was killed by a suspect firing a .45-caliber Glock handgun that had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017, authorities have mentioned.
A whole bunch of New York Metropolis cops and firefighters collect Saturday on the thirty second Precinct in Harlem for a vigil honoring two officers who had been shot in Harlem on Friday evening. One police officer died, the opposite was critically wounded.
(Getty Pictures)
“We’re in a battle with a small variety of those that imagine they’ll maintain our metropolis hostage with violence,” the mayor added, based on the AM New York Metro newspaper. “We made it too straightforward and too snug for folks to hold weapons in New York. We made it too straightforward for us to have a gun atmosphere on this nation and within the metropolis. So we’d like assist from the federal authorities.”
Michelle Rodriguez, who was Rivera’s neighbor rising up in New York Metropolis’s Inwood neighborhood, advised WCBS he was a “caring” “gentleman.”
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams speaks as a whole bunch of cops and firefighters collect on the thirty second Precinct in Harlem for vigil honoring two officers who had been shot Friday evening.
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“Serving to with luggage, on the lookout for parking. He was at all times obtainable to me, to all of us,” Rodriguez mentioned. “He was very proud to be going to the academy to turn into an officer and look what occurred. It’s simply devastating.”
Rivera joined the division in 2020 and was referred to as to a home dispute in Harlem Friday evening together with two different officers. Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, made their method down a slim residence hallway to a again bed room the place a lady mentioned her son who had been threatening her was positioned.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief adviser to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams, speaks Saturday evening as a whole bunch of cops and firefighters honor two officers who had been shot in Harlem on Friday evening.
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Lashawn McNeil, 47, allegedly kicked open the bed room door and began taking pictures Rivera and Mora with out warning. They had been rushed to a hospital the place Rivera was pronounced useless and Mora remained in crucial situation, present process surgical procedure. McNeil was additionally in crucial situation after a 3rd officer shot him whereas he was allegedly attempting to flee.
A whole bunch of New York Metropolis cops and firefighters collect Saturday on the thirty second Precinct in Harlem for a vigil honoring two officers who had been shot in Harlem on Friday evening. One police officer died, the opposite was critically wounded.
(Getty Pictures)
A whole bunch of New York Metropolis cops and firefighters collect Saturday on the thirty second Precinct in Harlem for a vigil honoring two officers who had been shot in Harlem on Friday evening. One police officer died, the opposite was critically wounded.
(Getty Pictures)
“He was at all times smiling, a pleasant man,” Officer Victor Guzman who works within the thirty second precinct and got here via the academy with Rivera mentioned, based on the New York Submit. “He was younger, 22 years outdated. It’s loads.”
Adams mentioned Saturday that “some would say 95 % of town is nice. I say 99 % of town is nice. Let’s weed out that 1 %.”
