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Officers dressed in blue uniforms with white gloves carried the
flag-draped coffin of Jason Rivera, 22, one of four New York
City officers shot over the past week, into a funeral service
held in Manhattan's iconic St. Patrick's Cathedral.
As his fellow officers consoled each other and wiped tears from
their eyes, Rivera's widow, Dominique Luzuriaga, said she felt
lost without him.
"I couldn't believe you left me. Seeing you in a hospital bed
wrapped in sheets, not hearing when I was talking to you, broke
me," Luzuriaga said in a eulogy, her voice cracking. "Although I
gained thousands of blue brothers and sisters, I'm the loneliest
without you."
Rivera was shot along with officer Wilbert Mora, 27, after they
and a third officer, a rookie, responded to a Jan. 21
disturbance in Harlem in which a woman said she was having a
fight with one of her sons.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, Rivera and Mora were fired
upon in a narrow hallway by the woman's adult son. The rookie
officer then shot the suspect, LaShawn McNeil, 47. Both Mora and
McNeil died of their injuries this week.
Mayor Eric Adams told mourners at Rivera's funeral that the
slain officer had helped make New Yorkers feel safe.
"He can still hear us from a distance. He hears our voices, he
hears our prayers, he hears our hopes," Adams said. "We as a
city, as a state and as a nation, we say thank you, Jason."
Adams, a former police captain, is grappling with a spike in
violent crime and police shootings, including a separate
incident last week in which a 16-year-old was charged with
shooting and wounding an officer in the Bronx.
The suspect was released Thursday on a $250,000 bond, which
Adams said was proof the city's public safety system needed
reform.
"New Yorkers should all be outraged that a repeat offender,
accused of shooting at a police officer, is today walking free
on bond because judges are precluded from even considering
danger to the community," Adams said in a statement.
(Writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Mark Porter and David
Gregorio)
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