Widow of fallen NYPD Det. Jason Rivera recalls how she learned of husband’s shooting through ‘Citizen’ app

NEW YORK CITY – The grieving widow of slain New York Metropolis Police Det. Jason Rivera described via tears the terror-filled moments when she discovered via cellphone apps and know-how that her husband was one of many officers gunned down by a home violence suspect. 

“As we speak, I’m nonetheless on this nightmare that I want I by no means had. Filled with rage and anger – harm and unhappy, torn,” Dominique Luzuriaga Rivera advised the 1000’s of mourners who packed the pews of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York Metropolis. “Though I gained 1000’s of blue brothers and sisters, I’m the loneliest with out you.”

REMEMBERING NYPD DET. JASON RIVERA: THOUSANDS FLOCK TO NYC’S ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL TO HONOR HERO COP

She was held by one other lady as she spoke for about 10 minutes, struggling via tears and a shaky voice at instances to complete her sentences. 

Only one week earlier, she and Rivera, a 22-year-old police officer assigned to the NYPD’s thirty second Precinct, had an argument earlier than they left one another. 

“You requested me in case you are positive that you simply don’t need me to take you house. ‘It may be the final experience I provide you with,’” she recalled him saying, as she grew extra emotional. “I stated no. And that was most likely the most important mistake I ever made.”

Rivera stated she hailed an Uber and returned house. Later that day, “I obtained the decision I want none of you which might be sitting right here with me will ever obtain.”

The “nightmare” started with a notification from the Citizen app, a breaking information software that notifies customers in real-time when crimes are being reported close by. It streams the crimes or breaking information and permits customers to stream stay video from the scene. 

“I noticed that two law enforcement officials had been shot in Harlem. My coronary heart dropped,” she recalled. “I instantly texted you and requested you, ‘Are you OK? Please inform me you’re OK. I do know that you simply’re mad proper now however simply textual content me you’re OK. At the very least inform me you’re busy.’”

When she obtained no response, she checked Rivera’s location utilizing Apple’s Discover My iPhone software program and noticed that he was at Harlem Hospital.

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She thought he may need been ready for against the law suspect, she defined. “However nonetheless, nothing.” 

“I referred to as, after which referred to as once more after which referred to as yet one more time. And this time I felt one thing wasn’t proper,” she added.

Rivera stated she started calling her husband’s fellow officers however obtained no reply. 

Then, she obtained a name from somebody asking if she was “Jason’s wife … And that I needed to rush to the hospital.” 

“Strolling up these steps, seeing all people looking at me was the scariest second I’ve skilled,” Rivera stated. “No one was telling me something. Dozens of individuals had been surrounding me. And but I felt alone.

“I couldn’t consider you left me. Seeing you in a hospital mattress, wrapped up in sheets, not listening to you once I was speaking to you broke me. I requested why. I stated to you, ‘Get up, child. I’m right here.’

“The little little bit of hope I had that you’d come again to life, simply to say goodbye or say, ‘I like you,’ yet one more time had left. I used to be misplaced. I’m nonetheless misplaced.”

Mikey Mild, a spokesperson for Citizen app, advised Fox Information Digital Friday the corporate’s “ideas are with Dominique Luzuriaga and her household as they grieve the tragic lack of” Det. Rivera. 

1000’s of legislation enforcement officers from throughout the nation and the world joined family members and the general public on Friday in paying their remaining respects.

NYPD’s Commissioner Keechant Sewell introduced throughout her eulogy she had promoted Jason Rivera to Detective First Grade posthumously.

Sewell advised the group New York Metropolis has all the time been “a metropolis of lights.”

“And Police Officer Jason Rivera was one of many brightest,” she stated. 

Rivera and his associate, Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, had been shot Jan. 21 whereas responding to a report of a home violence incident in Harlem involving a mom and her grownup son, Lashawn McNeil. 

Together with a 3rd officer, the pair met with the girl and had begun to strategy the again bed room, the place they had been advised McNeil was staying. As they approached, McNeil opened fireplace and struck Rivera and Mora. The third officer returned fireplace and critically injured McNeil. 

Rivera died Jan. 21 shortly after the capturing.

Mora, who took a gunshot to the top, succumbed to his accidents Tuesday. He donated his organs and was finally capable of save 5 lives. Mora’s companies have been scheduled for Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 and also will be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

McNeil allegedly used a high-capacity journal and a handgun, each of which had been discovered to have been stolen. He died from his accidents Monday.