Officer Killed In Harlem Is Identified As Jason Rivera, 22

HARLEM, NY — The police officer who was shot and killed in Harlem on Friday was a 22-year-old with just over a year on the job, the NYPD said.

Jason Rivera joined the department in November 2020, assigned to the 32nd Precinct in Central and northern Harlem.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell described Rivera as a "son, husband, officer and friend," who was "killed because he did what we asked him to do."

Authorities say that Rivera and other officers arrived Friday evening at an apartment on West 135th Street near Lenox Avenue, responding to a fight between a mother and her son, identified as 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil.

As police walked down a narrow hallway inside the apartment, a bedroom door swung open and McNeil opened fire, hitting Rivera and fellow officer Wilbert Mora, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.

Rivera was pronounced dead later Friday evening, while Mora, 27, remained in critical condition — despite initial reports that he had died, NYPD officials said. McNeil, who was shot by a third officer inside the apartment, was also in critical condition late Friday.

In a news conference at Harlem Hospital, Mayor Eric Adams called the shooting "an attack on the City of New York."

Adams has ordered flags on all city buildings to fly half-staff in Rivera's memory, a City Hall spokesperson said Saturday morning.

Friday's shooting in Harlem came within days of other NYPD officers being injured by gunfire: a detective was shot on Staten Island on Thursday while serving a narcotics warrant, while another officer was shot in the Bronx on Tuesday. Both men survived the shootings.