Somber NYPD gathers to honor a fallen brother killed in Harlem

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For the second time in under a week, thousands of police officers converged on New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pay tribute to a young officer gunned down in cold blood along with his partner while answering a call for help in Harlem, leading the slain hero’s enraged sister to ask: ‘how many more police officers have to lose their lives for this system to change?’

Officer Wilbert Mora’s funeral took place place at the same Roman Catholic cathedral where Officer Jason Rivera was eulogized and posthumously promoted to detective on Friday. Cardinal Timothy Dolan presided over the service, as he did at Rivera’s funeral. 

Both officers were fatally shot on January 21 while responding to a call from a woman about a domestic dispute with her grown son, a career criminal, in an apartment.

In her emotional eulogy delivered in Spanish, Mora’s older sister, Karina Mora, described her baby brother as a young man who was ‘full of dream’ and who ‘lit up the room with his smile.’ She said both he and Officer Rivera wanted to make a difference in society. 

‘It hurts to know that two exemplary young men like the officer Jason Rivera and Wilber Mora were taken from us at the wrong time, Karina said, her voicing rising. ‘Two young people who wanted to make a difference and a change in their city with their service and dedication. 

‘Now, I just wonder, how many Wilberts, how many Jasons, how many more officers will have to lose their lives for this system to change? How many more lives of those who protect us must be taken by violence and crime? How many mothers, how many more mothers, how many children will have to lose their families by going through this trauma and this type of tragedy.’ 

Karina Mora argued that police officers have been left defenseless against the rising tide of violence in the city, and called on New York’s lawmakers to crack down on soft-on-crime policies. 

 ‘New York police officers protect us, but who protects them?’ she asked. ‘Who watches for their lives? I don’t know that, but what I and you do know (is) who are responsible for preventing this type of tragedy from continuing to happen. 

‘Legislators, the crime ended the life of two exemplary young men who only gave their best to their city. Crime buried their dreams and in your hands are many other dreams that can’t be buried. Take action. It’s enough!’  

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell delivered a powerful speech, telling Mora’s family members and fellow officers filling the cavernous marble church: ‘an ocean of officers shouldn’t have to line streets for the second time in five days, to mourn the appalling loss of a 27-year-old son and brother.’ .

Just like she did during Rivera’s funeral, Sewell announced that Mora has been posthumously promoted to detective first grade, drawing applause from the crowd. 

‘Wilbert was the perfect candidate to join the NYPD,’ she added. ‘No one had to tell him to become a police officer. It was all he ever wanted to do.’

Scroll down to view video and to read full eulogy of Wilbert Mora’s sister 

Earlier, Sewell called Mora ‘three times a hero.’

‘For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation,’ she said in announcing his January 25 death.

Sewell attended the funeral along with numerous other top dignitaries, including Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-New York Governor George Pataki also made an appearance. 

Adams was the first to speak after the Mass, saying of Mora: ‘we reflect on his bravery. We remember his sacrifice.’  

Mora’s funeral was taking place hours after an off-duty police officer was shot and wounded as he drove to work in Queens. 

Police said the officer was shot by one of two men who approached him when he was stopped at a traffic light shortly before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The officer, whose name was not immediately released, was in stable condition at a hospital Wednesday and two men were arrested.

‘Last night we were reminded again about the danger and overproliferation of guns,’ Adams, a retired police captain who took office last month, said.

‘This has been a painful last few weeks,’ the Democrat added, vowing to ‘build a city of peace out of the ashes of fear.’

Mora was the youngest of four children in a tight-knit family that emigrated from the Dominican Republic and eventually settled in East Harlem. He is survived by his older sister, Karina Mora, and two brothers, Wilson and Jonathan. 

‘He policed with empathy and believed in protecting his fellow man, regardless of the danger to himself,’ his precinct commander, Inspector Amir Yakatally, said in a eulogy.

Dedicated, thorough and an aspiring sergeant, ‘he was a guy to rely on to make the right call,’ Yakatally said.

On the night of the shooting, Mora ‘asked all the right questions and gave instructions to the younger officers, with the primary goal of de-escalation,’ Yakatally said, but the seemingly routine call quickly spiraled into gunfire. 

The audience assembled in the church also heard emotional speeches in English and Spanish from Mora’s brother Wilson and his cousin Claribel Jiminian, who described the 27-year-old as the pride of his family. 

People gravitated toward him ‘because they could lower their defenses and be themselves’ around him, his brother Wilson said in a eulogy. 

After Cardinal Timothy Dolan presided over Mora’s funeral, a phalanx of officers stretched for blocks along Fifth Avenue, their white-gloved hands rising in a rolling salute to the hearse carrying Mora’s casket, escorted by scores of police motorcycles and several helicopters above en route to a cemetery in Woodside, Queens. A large American flag hung over the storied avenue. 

‘He was a gentle giant,’ Rashad Mujumder, Mora’s high school friend, told PIX11. Mujumder said that standing at 6 feet, 3 inches tall, Mora was ‘the biggest person in the room with the softest heart.’

Mujumder said Mora’s father supported his family as a barber and his mother, Amalia, worked in health care.

‘His parents are very proud of him,’ the friend said. ‘Seeing him put on the uniform was an amazing moment for them.’ 

Mora joined the New York Police Department in October 2018, after graduating from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. According to one of his professors, Irina Zakirova, Mora was interested in improving relations between police and the neighborhoods they patrolled.

‘He was so certain about becoming a police officer – a good police officer,’ Zakirova said.  

That sensibility endured in his police work. Stephanie McGraw, a domestic violence victims’ advocate who got to know Mora while visiting his stationhouse, said last week that he ‘understood the importance of getting into this very crucial and important role as a police officer – to not only make a difference but to bring some more men and women of color into the NYPD.’

At the same time, Mora made 33 arrests during his few years on the job. Fellow officers recalled him as a humble, helpful colleague who took the bus to work.

‘It’s a horrible loss for the community, for the city, for anyone that’s a first responder,’ Linden, New Jersey, Officer Raymond Wegrzynek, 34, said outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday for the latest in a series of police funerals he has attended in his six years of police work. ‘It’s a thing that we do. We all come together.’ 

Retired NYPD detective-turned-Fox News contributor  Angel Maysonet paid tribute to Mora on Instagram, sharing a series of photos of the officer spending time with friends. 

He wrote in a post accompanying the images: ‘Everyone says he was a big teddy bear. Kind. A fun “goofball.” Life of the party. Always smiling. Took care of his elderly parents who are lost & devastated without him. Young Dominican son of NYC. The epitome of what you want as an NYPD cop. 

‘Everyone says he was a big teddy bear. Kind. Life of the party. Took care of his parents who are lost and devastated without him.’ 

On January 21, Mora and Rivera was responding to a domestic violence dispute inside a Harlem apartment when police say 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil threw open a door and opened fire.

McNeil died a day after a third officer shot him as he tried to flee, officials said.   

Rivera died the night of the shooting. His funeral took place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral last Friday and was attended by thousands of first responders. 

Rivera’s newlywed wife, Dominique Rivera, delivered an emotional and impassioned eulogy, in which she accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of leaving police officers feeling less safe with his soft-on-crime policies.  

Mora was in critical condition for days but after it was clear he wouldn’t survive, he was kept on life support so his organs, including his heart, kidneys, liver and pancreas, could be donated to save others in accordance with his and his family’s wishes.

‘They will hear the heartbeat of a hero,’ NYPD union president Patrick Lynch in his eulogy. ‘Know now your son has given renewed life to five other people.’ 

On Tuesday, Dominique paid tribute to her late husband’s partner in a touching Instagram Stories post, writing: ‘Although I never met you, thank you for always being eager to work with my angel. Regardless of him being a rookie. Take care of us.’ 

Before last month, the NYPD had last lost an officer in the line of duty when Anastasios Tsakos was hit by a suspected drunken driver in May 2021 at the scene of an earlier wreck.

No on-duty NYPD officer had been fatally shot since September 2019, when Brian Mulkeen was hit by a fellow officer’s fire during a struggle with an armed man.