1 Cop Killed, 2 Critically Wounded In Harlem Shooting

NYC Mayor Eric Adams is off to a rocky start to his four-year term at Gracie Mansion.

Two weeks after 17 were killed (including 8 children, according to the mayor’s revised numbers) in a disastrous fire in a Bronx high rise, the deadliest fire the city had seen in decades, Adams is facing a rash of police-involved shootings, including one incident Friday that left one cop dead and two others critically wounded.

It’s the latest development in a crime wave that has been worsening across the US, with NYC seeing violent crime surge to levels unseen in years.

The news was reported Saturday afternoon by the New York Times. The shooting occurred in Harlem, where the officers were responding to a domestic violence call, according to the report. The shooter opened fire on them while inside the apartment.

Police initially erroneously said that two cops had died, but later revised the total to 1. The shooter was shot in the head and is in critical condition.

The office killed was Jason Rivera, 22, who joined the department in 2020.

Police Commission Keechant Sewell addressed the media during a press briefing outside the hospital where the two wounded cops had been taken, the NYT reports.

Speaking at a news conference at the hospital where the two officers were taken after being shot, Keechant Sewell, the police commissioner, described Officer Rivera as a “son, husband, officer and friend” who had been “killed because he did what we asked him to do.”

“I’m struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring,” said Ms. Sewell, her voice rising in anger. Like the man who hired her, Mayor Eric Adams, she began her job overseeing the largest police force in the United States this month.

“We’re mourning, and we’re angry,” she added.

Mayor Adams had been in the Bronx earlier attending a vigil for a baby who had been shot in the face with a stray bullet Wednesday night, another high-profile crime that drew intense media attention.

“This was just not an attack on three brave officers,” he said. “This was an attack on the City of New York” and “an attack on the children and families of this city,” Adams said at the news conference.”

Even the NYT acknowledged that the stream of major crimes had “tested” Adams’ pledge to tackle the resurgent crime problem in the city, a major piece of his successful primary campaign in a city beset by more progressive candidates vying for the spotlight.

During the briefing, the NYPD’s chief of detectives delivered a breakdown of the incident that led to the fatal shooting.

Around 6:30 p.m. on Friday, three officers from the 32nd Precinct answered a 911 call from a woman who said she was fighting with her son. When the officers arrived at the apartment, they were met by the woman and a second son. There was no indication from the 911 call, officials said, that there were weapons in the apartment.

The woman told the officers that the son she had been fighting with was in a back bedroom at the end of a long, narrow hallway. As officers Mora and Rivera approached the bedroom, the door swung open and Mr. McNeil began firing. After shooting the two officers, Mr. McNeil tried to leave the apartment and was shot by the third officer, whose name has not been released.

Mr. McNeil, 47, was on probation after being arrested in New York on a felony drug charge around 2003, officials said. He also had four arrests in other states, all more than a decade ago.

Unfortunately this isn’t the only cop shooting to happen recently. Friday’s shooting brings the total number of NYPD officers shot since the start of 2022 to 5; 4 were shot, with the first cop shooting taking place just hours into the New Year. Another officer was shot on Tuesday, meaning four cops have now been shot in the span of 72 hours.

And progressive DAs want to let more violent criminals out of prison.