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‘A DAMN SHAME’
Queens borough president holds candlelight vigil in memory of fallen police offi cers
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards Jr., NYPD
officials and community leaders
from across Queens gathered
for a candlelight vigil
in memory of fallen NYPD
Officers Jason Rivera and
Wilbert Mora on Wednesday,
Feb. 2.
Officer Rivera, 22, and
Officer Mora, 27, were ambushed
and killed in a hail of
gunfire while responding to
a domestic disturbance call
in Harlem on Friday, Jan. 21.
Rivera died the same night
shortly after the shooting,
and Mora was on life support
until Jan. 25 to recover his organs
for transplant.
The wakes and funerals
for officers Rivera and Mora
were held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
in Manhattan on Jan.
28 and Feb. 2, respectively,
as thousands of police officers
lined Fifth Avenue to
bid their final farewell. Both
officers were posthumously
promoted to Detective First-
Grade by NYPD Commissioner
Keechant Sewell.
The vigil also recognized
New York City’s first responders
and NYPD Officer Sumit
Sulan, a Queens resident, who
responded to the domestic violence
call with his brothers in
blue. Officer 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 officers and how
devastating it was to see the
pain and agony in the faces
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards held a candlelight vigil for fallen officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, and recognized Queens
resident Officer Sumit Sulan, who also responded to the incident. Photos courtesy of Chris Barca/Offi ce of the Queens Borough President
and eyes of family members
and NYPD officers, knowing
that it could have easily been
them in the casket.
“But these two funerals
hit different,” Richards said.
“They struck a different
chord with me — not only as
an elected official 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
first style of policing.
“They 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
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.16 COM | FEB. 11 - FEB. 17, 2022
out. “They 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 difference 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 Officer.”
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.
“This 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.
“Think 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 Officer 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 finest.”
Richards reminded NYPD
Officer 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.
“There 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
officers, to this scourge at
an unacceptable rate.”
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