A few thousand police officers in New York paid tribute on Wednesday to a second officer killed on January 21 in Harlem by a gunman, a symbol of gun violence that the city’s new mayor wants to curb.
Wilbert Mora, 27, succumbed to his injuries a week ago after being shot with his colleague Jason Rivera on January 21, the young police officers being called for help by the mother of an abusive man .
Mr. Rivera, who died at 22, was buried Friday after a mass and an impressive tribute by thousands of uniformed police officers in the heart of Manhattan, along 5th Avenue.
Like Friday, the New York City Police (NYPD) Chiefs of Staff, Mayor Eric Adams, and the city’s and state’s political elites gathered in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday for a service in English and French. Spanish.
Colleagues and loved ones saluted the memory of Mr. Mora, “a gentle and tender giant” who arrived in the United States at the age of seven from his native Dominican Republic. “He lit up the house just with his smile and that light went out in pain and forever,” whispered his sister Karina Mora.
The ceremony ended with the sound of “God bless America” and bagpipes in the streets, before the funeral procession was honored by a helicopter patrol.
The death of this police officer puts the centre-right Democratic mayor and former African-American police officer on the front line in an attempt to stem gun violence in New York City. “We will win this battle and we will win it together,” said Mr. Adams, martial, during the religious ceremony.
Since he took office on January 1, at least six police officers have been hit by gunfire – the latest to date overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday was injured in the Queens neighborhood.
Mr. Adams’ hard line is garnering support among New York’s political and economic leaders, and the mayor is hosting President Joe Biden on Thursday to discuss the fight against the illegal proliferation of firearms.
In New York, crime figures have increased since the start of the pandemic in 2020 (488 murders in 2021 compared to 319 in 2019) but the number of murders remains 75% lower than 28 years ago, when the city was still a cutthroat, according to NYPD figures.
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