22 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 10, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Borough president holds candlelight
vigil in memory of fallen police offi cers
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards Jr., NYPD offi cials and community
leaders from across Queens gathered
for a candlelight vigil in memory of fallen
NYPD Offi cers Jason Rivera and Wilbert
Mora on Wednesday, Feb. 2.
Offi cer Rivera, 22, and Offi cer Mora,
27, were ambushed and killed in a hail
of gunfi re while responding to a domestic
disturbance call in Harlem on Friday,
Jan. 21. Rivera died the same night shortly
aft er the shooting, and Mora was on life
support until Jan. 25 to recover his organs
for transplant.
Th e wakes and funerals for offi cers
Rivera and Mora were held at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in Manhattan on Jan. 28 and
Feb. 2, respectively, as thousands of police
offi cers lined Fift h Avenue to bid their
fi nal farewell. Both offi cers were posthumously
promoted to Detective First-
Grade by NYPD Commissioner Keechant
Sewell.
Th e vigil also recognized New York
City’s fi rst responders and NYPD Offi cer
Sumit Sulan, a Queens resident, who
responded to the domestic violence call
with his brothers in blue. Offi cer Sulan
shot and killed the suspected gunman,
47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, possibly
preventing further loss of life.
Richards opened the vigil, thanking
Reverend Newton, Rabbi Mendelson
and Imam Safraz Bacchus for leading
those assembled in prayer, followed by a
moment of silence.
Richards shared that he had been to his
share of funerals for police offi cers and
how devastating it was to see the pain
and agony in the faces and eyes of family
members and NYPD offi cers, knowing
that it could have easily been them in
the casket.
“But these two funerals hit diff erent,”
Richards said. “Th ey struck a diff erent
chord with me — not only as an elected
offi cial but also as a Black man living in
southeast Queens.”
He recalled that Jason Rivera and
Wilbert Mora were young, bright men
of color who dedicated their careers to a
more inclusive, community-fi rst style of
policing.
“Th ey were men who came of age in a
post-Eric Garner New York and a post-
Ferguson America — a period where
policing become polarizing,” Richards
pointed out. “Th ey came up in a time
where it can feel like you have to choose
whether Black lives or blue lives matter
most. But Detectives Rivera and Mora
didn’t see things that way.”
Mora and Rivera wanted to make a
diff erence and change the relationship
between police and their communities
for the better. While attending the police
academy in 2020, Detective Rivera wrote
a letter titled, “Why I Became a Police
Offi cer.”
In that letter, he spoke of watching his
brother stopped and frisked. He shared
how deeply that troubled him. But he also
spoke of how much that inspired him to
be the change he wanted to see.
“Th is was when I realized that I wanted
to be part of the
men in blue, to better
the relationship between
the community and the
police,” Rivera wrote.
“Th ink about the courage it took
Detective Rivera to write those words,”
Richards said. “He could have turned his
anger inward at himself or outward at the
world. But he didn’t.”
Richards pointed out that when
Detectives Rivera and Mora and NYPD
Offi cer Sulan answered the call on Jan. 21,
they were doing exactly that, working in a
community of color to improve trust and
save lives.
“It’s a damn shame they aren’t alive
today,” Richards said. “We’ve been robbed
of two of New York City’s fi nest.”
Richards reminded NYPD Offi cer Sulan
that his home borough of Queens was
standing behind him to lift him up, and
promised that he and his family would
always have the support of his extended
Queens family.
He stressed the importance of shutting
down the “Iron Pipeline,” a route along
the I95 corridor where guns from states
with lax gun laws are brought to New
York state.
“Th ere are no gun manufacturers
on 135th Street in Harlem, in southeast
Queens, or anywhere else in this
city,” Richards said. “But we’re still losing
neighbors, and now police offi cers, to this
scourge at an unacceptable rate.”
Photos courtesy of Chris Barca/Offi ce of the Queens Borough President
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards held a candlelight vigil for
fallen offi cers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, and recognized Queens
resident Offi cer Sumit Sulan who also responded to the incident, on
Feb. 2, 2022.
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