After responding to a domestic violence complaint in Harlem, a New York City police officer was shot and killed while another one got severe injuries, according to authorities.
According to authorities, officers were dispatched to a first-floor apartment to break up a confrontation between an adult son and her mother. At about 6:30 p.m. in the evening, the mother was spotted by cops outside her residence on West 135th Street. Two of the three responding cops were hit when gunfire rang out as they proceeded to a back room in order to speak with her son.
Police reported on Friday night that the Police officer, whose identity has not been made public, was 22 and married. Late Friday, the other officer was still in serious condition in the hospital.
According to authorities, the other officer shot and killed Lashawn McNeil, a 47-year-old suspect.
The assailant was apprehended. As per the authorities, he got wounded in the arm and the head and is in severe condition.
“I am struggling to find the word to express the tragedy we are enduring,” Keechant Sewell, NYPD Commissioner, said at the press conference. “We are mourning and we are angry. … Our department is hurting, our city is hurting. it is beyond comprehension.”
Sewell, who had taken the role of commissioner with new Mayor Eric Adams earlier this month, described how McNeil “suddenly, without warning, opened fire on them,”.
Five prior arrests have been made against the suspect, one of which was for felony drug possession in 2003 in New York City. According to authorities, at the time of arrest, the assailant was on probation. Since leaving the city, he has been charged with assaulting an officer in 2002, unauthorized firearm possession in 1998, and two additional drug-related offenses.
To put it mildly, the NYPD has had a rough go of it lately. New York City police officers have been shot and killed in four separate instances over the course of the last week. One cop was killed and two others were wounded when they were shot in the Staten Island and Bronx.
In a statement made Friday night, Adams added, “It is our city against the killers,” “This was not just an attack on three brave officers, this was an attack on the city of New York. It is an attack on the children and families of New York. We are not going to win this battle by dividing lives. We must save this city together.”
According to authorities, the pistol that was seized at the site of Friday’s incident was stolen in 2017 from Baltimore.
Amid concerns about an out-of-control gun population, Adams said, “We don’t make guns here,” pleading with the federal government for assistance in passing gun control laws.
According to DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley, Attorney General Merrick Garland also talked with Sewell on Friday night and offered help from the FBI or Department Justice if required. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York stated in a statement, “My thoughts are with the family who answered the phone to receive the news they’ve always dreaded: that their loved one, who had sworn to protect and serve New Yorkers by joining @NYPDnews will not be coming home.”
