ANew York City police officer was fatally shot and another critically wounded Friday night while responding to a call at a Harlem apartment about a dispute between a woman and her adult son.
The incident marked the fourth NYPD officer shot in as many days and the most recent shooting in a spate of violent crimes in the city, a surge in lawlessness that new Mayor Eric Adams is trying to get under control.
In the incident Friday night, the two officers shot, along with a third officer, went to the apartment on 135th Street at about 6:30 p.m. in response to the call.
The officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon. Two of them then walked from the front of the apartment down a narrow hallway, according to the Associated Press.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the third officer stayed with the women who was fighting with another son, identified as 47-year-old LaShawn McNeil, who allegedly opened a bedroom door and shot at the officers.
The officer who was killed has been identified as Jason Rivera, 22, who joined the force in November 2020. The wounded officer is 27-year-old Wilbert Mora, who has been with the NYPD for four years.
The third officer on the call, who stayed with McNeil’s mother in the front of the apartment, shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, the wire service also reports.
McNeil was on probation for a 2003 drug conviction in New York City. He also had several out-of-state arrests, including one in 1998 in South Carolina for unlawfully carrying a pistol. Records show the matter was later dismissed. McNeil also was arrested in 2002 in Pennsylvania for assaulting a police officer, Essig told reporters.
The weapon McNeil allegedly used was a handgun with a high-capacity magazine stolen in Baltimore in 2017, the Associated Press also reports.
