A second New York City police officer has died from injuries sustained on Friday when a gunman opened fire during a domestic disturbance call in Harlem, the police commissioner announced on Tuesday.
The officer, Wilbert Mora, who joined the Police Department in 2018, was mortally wounded along with his partner, Jason Rivera, 22, who was pronounced dead on Friday. Officer Mora, 27, was rushed into surgery at Harlem Hospital.
In the days that followed, police officials and Mayor Eric Adams described Mr. Mora as fighting for his life at the hospital.
But Officer Mora’s injuries were too severe, and two days after being transferred to NYU Langone Medical Center, he was pronounced dead. Commissioner Keechant Sewell said on Tuesday that Officer Mora was a “hero” for both his service on the force — and for becoming an organ donor in his death.
Officer Mora’s family chose to have his organs donated, said Leonard Achan, the president of LiveOnNY, the designated organ procurement agency for the New York metro area, which handled Officer Mora’s donation.
This week, Officer Mora’s organs were in the process of being matched to patients on wait lists, Mr. Achan said.
“When Officer Wilbert Mora’s family was notified of his passing, his family knew their brave and dedicated son would want to continue to save lives, even in death,” Mr. Achan said in a statement. “Officer Mora’s final gift was the gift of life to others in need.”
The shooting on Friday was the first time two city police officers had been killed in the line of duty since 2014, when Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were ambushed and shot at point-blank range while they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
“True heroes never die. Our brother Police Officer Wilbert Mora has left us, but he will live on in the heart of every New York City police officer from this day forward,” said Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union.
Police officials said Officers Rivera and Mora had responded around 6:30 p.m. to a call from a woman who said her son had threatened her. When they arrived, the son, later identified by the police as Lashawn McNeil, was in a bedroom down a narrow hallway.
As Officers Rivera and Mora approached the bedroom door, Mr. McNeil, 47, emerged and began firing, officials said. Both officers were struck; Mr. McNeil was shot in the arm and the head by a third officer as he tried to leave the apartment. Mr. McNeil died on Monday of his injuries.
Reached by phone at a number registered to a member of Officer Mora’s family on Sunday, a man who answered was briefly overcome by emotion and declined to speak about him.
Four officers were shot in the city last week. On Tuesday, a patrol officer was shot in the leg while confronting a teenage suspect in the Bronx, the police said, and on Thursday, a detective was shot while executing a search warrant in Staten Island. Neither of those injuries was life-threatening.
Officers Rivera and Mora had been assigned to the 32nd Precinct in Harlem. Officer Mora was assigned to the precinct in 2019, according to a Police Department profile. Officer Rivera, who had roughly 18 months on the job, had been assigned to the precinct in May.
Chelsia Rose Marcius, Troy Closson and Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.