The 47-year-old convicted gunman and career criminal who ambushed two NYPD officers last Friday night in Harlem, killing one and wounding the other, before a third ‘hero’ cop shot him, has died from his injuries.
Lashwn McNeil, who has been in critical condition since the incident, died Monday afternoon at Harlem Hospital.
The career criminal was shot in the head and right arm by Officer Sumit Sulan moments after McNeil ambushed two officers who were responding to a 911 call from McNeil’s mother at her Harlem apartment.
Newlywed cop Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed, and Wilbert Mora, 27, was critically injured in the ambush.
Sources told the New York Daily News that McNeil argued with his mother, Sourzes, about his veganism. NYPD senior officials told NBC that McNeil had moved in with his Sourzes at her Harlem apartment in November 2021 and had tried to convert his family to share his beliefs.
McNeil’s mother Shirley Sourzes spoke to the New York Post on Monday just hours before her son died, and said she wishes she never made the 911 call that led to the deadly ambush.
‘If I knew, I never would have made the phone call,’ said the mom, who said he son was mentally unstable. ‘I would never have called!’
McNeil, 47, a convicted gunman and career criminal, who ambushed two NYPD officers last Friday night in Harlem, killing one and wounding the other, before a third ‘hero’ cop shot him, died from his injuries Monday
NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was shot to death while out on a call in Harlem on Friday
Wilbert Mora, 27, was critically injured in the ambush
‘I would like to say to Mr. and Mrs. [Rivera] that I am deeply sorry,’ she added through tears. ‘I know that there is not words that I can express. Your pain. Your sorrow.
‘Me and my family are not proud of my son taking of life.
‘There is nothing I can say to heal your sorrow, but God is a comforter. … And I know that he sent your son to do his will,’ she said, addressing Rivera’s parents. ‘I don’t understand it. It’s not fair. My heart goes out to you and your family.’
A police officer stands guard on the corner of the street in Harlem
NYPD call logs painted a harrowing picture of the final moments of the rookie cop was shot dead while responding to a domestic violence callout in Harlem that night.
When Rivera, Mora and the third officer arrived at the McNeil house, the mother was in a front room with another son. She said that her threatening son was in the back room, and so Rivera and Mora approached the room along a narrow 30-foot hallway.
The third officer remained with the mother and her other son.
After Rivera and Mora walked from the front of the apartment down a narrow hallway to check on McNeil, he swung open a bedroom door and began shooting, police said. Both officers were gunned down before they could pull their weapons and defend themselves, police said.
As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer who had stayed with McNeil´s mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
McNeil was well known to officers, who were last called to the house on a domestic violence call in August, had previously been arrested in New York in 2003 on felony narcotic charges and was out on probation. He also had four other arrests in two different states.
Sources told the New York Daily News that McNeil argued with his mother, Sourzes, about his veganism. NYPD senior officials told NBC that McNeil had moved in with his Sourzes at her Harlem apartment in November 2021 and had tried to convert his family to share his beliefs.
He had shared a controversial music video in 2014 depicting officers getting gunned down and footage of police brutality against black men as two rappers appear holding guns to the head of a stoic white officer as they sing, ‘Time to start kill these coppers.’
The music video, ‘Hands Up’ by Uncle Murda & Maino, was posted as a tribute to Eric Garner, a black man who was choked to death by a white NYPD officer and whose cry, ‘I can’t breathe,’ became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Along with the video, McNeil shared a slew of conspiracy theory posts and videos on his Facebook page, which warned of a coming race war, that McDonalds conducted blood sacrifices, that black people were aliens, and that the UN had established a global army to bring about a new world order. He stopped sharing the conspiracy posts by early 2015.
It was the third incident in less than 72 hours involving NYPD officers getting shot in the line of duty, following an incident in the Bronx late on Tuesday night and another officer shot early Thursday morning on Staten Island.
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York – an ex NYPD officer, who only took office three weeks ago – angrily declared at the hospital that the violence must stop.
‘It is our city against the killers,’ he said.
‘This is not just an attack on three brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York.’
The officers’ deaths are the first under Adams, who was elected in part to combat the city’s surging crime, and the first shooting deaths of an NYPD officer since July 2017.
They are the fourth and fifth officers shot so far this year – by comparison, last year, a total of 10 police officers were shot in the entire state of New York.
Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest municipal police union in the world representing 50,000 active and retired officers, excoriated the city’s leaders for not doing enough.
Lynch has been highly critical of the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who announced on taking office at the beginning of the month that he would not prosecute certain crimes.
Lynch said on January 4 that he had ‘serious concerns about the message these types of policies send to both police officers and criminals on the street.’
Lynch on January 4 said that he was worried about the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and his ‘soft on crime’ policies
On Friday night, he was furious, and pointed the finger firmly at Bragg and his policies.
‘Our hearts are broken, we’re in shock, our knees are buckling,’ he said.
‘And we’re angry, because we’ve been here before.
‘We’re angry, because we saw it coming.
‘We’re angry, because we said it would happen – and it happened again.’
Rivera, who grew up in the Inwood district of Manhattan – five miles from where he was shot and killed – said he wanted to join the New York Police Department to improve community relations, and help people.
‘Coming from an immigrant family, I will be the first to say that I am a member of the NYPD – the greatest police force in the world,’ he wrote on his application form.
‘Growing up in New York City, I knew how impactful my role as a police officer would go in this chaotic city of about 10 million people.
‘I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple resolve an issue, would put a smile on someone’s face.’
He also said that, as a child, he saw that ‘the community’s relationship between the police and the community was not great’.
He said his brother was pulled over and searched, and he was confused and upset as to why they were targeted.
He then saw the NYPD trying to reform, and he wanted to be part of the change.
‘This is when I realized that I wanted to be part of the men in blue; better the relationship between the community and the police.’
This is a developing story