2nd NYPD Officer Dies After Being Shot During Harlem Ambush

Just a day after Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his new plan for tackling crime in NYC – a plan that has been met with cautious optimism, even from the NY Post, which excoriated Adams’ predecessor daily – a second NYPD officer shot in an incident in Harlem on Friday night has reportedly died, making him the second cop to have died in the shooting.

Wilbert Mora

The deceased officer’s name is Wilbert Mora, 27. He had been clinging to life since being gunned down along with his police partner, Jason Rivera, 22, who died shortly after the shooting Friday, an ambush that occurred during a domestic violence call.

News of the officer’s death was announced by NYC Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell on twitter:

It’s with great sadness I announce the passing of Police Officer Wilbert Mora.

Wilbert is 3 times a hero. For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation. Our heads are bowed & our hearts are heavy. pic.twitter.com/8JiWGbUYTn

— Commissioner Sewell (@NYPDPC) January 25, 2022

An e-mail to the NYPD rank and file described the department’s grief as “incalculable.”

Mora, who was single, underwent two surgeries after he was shot in the head and a bullet lodged in his brain but couldn’t be saved, authorities said.

Mora and Rivera were both assigned to the 32nd Precinct stationhouse, as was the third officer shot in the incident. They responded to the Harlem apartment after a woman reported that her son was threatening her. The caller told the dispatcher that no one in the home was armed. The mother didn’t know her son – the shooter, a career criminal named Lashawn McNeil – had a gun, NYPD sources say.

As for McAdams’ plan, the NYPost’s Bob McManus wrote Tuesday that “it’s overstuffed with concessions to grasping social activists and it’s impossibly dependent on actors far beyond the mayor’s control…[b]ut it just might make a difference”.