Grieving young widow of slain NYPD officer Jason Rivera, 22, posts moving tribute to husband

The grieving widow of the slain 22-year-old NYPD officer Jason Rivera yesterday posted a moving tribute to her husband, who she married just three months ago. 

Rivera was shot dead on Friday night during an ambush as he and his partner, Officer Wilbert Mora, responded to a Harlem address to investigate a domestic-violence call.

The pair were allegedly shot by convicted felon Lashawn McNeil, 47. 

‘Fly high my beautiful angel,’ Rivera’s widow wrote on Instagram, together with a picture of his locker that she took at the NYPD’s 32nd Precinct in central Harlem.  

‘Yesterday I visited the locker room where you used to FaceTime me at during your meal time or right before you had to go downstairs to the muster room for roll call at 15:00,’ she said.

The couple were married on October 9, 2021 and had some pictures taken in New Jersey

Jason Rivera, 22, right, was allegedly killed by convicted felon Lashawn McNeil, 47, left, as he visited a Harlem address to investigate a domestic-violence call

‘Last night was suppose to be your day 5 & you were RDO [off] for the next three days. We both waited for your RDO’s to spend them together. But now your soul will spend the rest of my days with me, through me, right beside me. 

‘I love you till the end of time,’ the grieving widow – who has not been named – wrote.

Her Instagram profile also includes photos of the newly married couple out in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. In one posting, she describes her husband as ‘my soulmate, best friend and lover from now until the end of time.’ 

Relatives, together with hundreds of NYPD officers and Mayor Eric Adams paid tribute to Rivera as his body was moved to a Manhattan funeral home on Sunday. 

Officers Rivera and Mora were shot while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son. After the two entered, McNeil ran from a back bedroom in the Harlem apartment and opened fire. 

Rivera died while Mora, 27, still is fighting for his life and was transferred from Harlem Hospital to NYU Langone, having undergone two surgeries to remove a bullet that had become stuck in his brain.

Funeral services for officer Rivera were being finalized, as fellow cops mourned his loss. The officer previously wrote how he joined the force to make a difference in what he had described as a ‘chaotic city.’

Jason Rivera is pictured with his wife whom he had married last October

‘I love you till the end of time,’ Rivera’s grieving widow, pictured, wrote 

A solemn scene unfolded Sunday with a column of uniformed police officers, as well as a line of firefighters, flanking the streets as a hearse carrying the fallen officer left the medical examiner’s office for a funeral home.

A wake has been planned for Thursday with a funeral service scheduled for Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

The medical examiner ruled Rivera´s death a homicide after an autopsy found he died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso. 

Mora, who has been with the NYPD for four years, remained in life-threatening condition, Adams said Sunday. Police said he would be transferred from Harlem Hospital to NYU Langone Medical Center.

‘It just really has impacted our entire city, if not the entire country. And this is coming after having five officers shot, the 11-month baby shot in Brooklyn,’ the mayor said.

The shooting is the latest in a string of crimes that has unnerved the nation’s most populated city and the country’s largest police force, with 36,000 officers.

In the three weeks since Adams took office, a 19-year-old cashier was shot to death as she worked a late-night shift at a Burger King, a woman was pushed to her death in a subway station, and a baby was critically injured by a stray bullet while in a parked car with her mother. With the Harlem shooting Friday night, four police officers had been shot in as many days.

Details about what led to the deadly confrontation were still emerging.

New York City police officers and firemen stand at attention as they await the remains of police Officer Jason Rivera to be brought to a funeral home on Sunday in New York City

Rivera’s hearse was taken from the Medical Examiner’s Officer to a funeral home in Riverdale 

Tears are shed for slain NYPD Officer Jason Rivera as a procession was held on January 23, 2022 in New York City

Officers embrace one another following a procession for Officer Rivera on Sunday 

A procession for the remains of NYPD Officer Jason Rivera makes its way to a funeral home on Sunday

Traffic stood still as the procession made its way uptown with an American flag hanging in the middle of the street

Officer Rivera’s widow posted a picture of her husband with information about his wake and funeral later this week

According to officials, a woman who made an emergency call Friday said she was ill and that her son who had come up to take care of her had become ‘problematic.’ Adams said the woman did not specify the problem.

Authorities said three officers went to the apartment after the call came in. The officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon, police said.

As 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 remains critical in Harlem Hospital. 

McNeil has a 2003 drug conviction in New York City. He also has several out-of-state arrests. In 1998, he was arrested in South Carolina on suspicion of unlawfully carrying a pistol, but records show the matter was later dismissed. 

In 2002, he was arrested in Pennsylvania on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, Essig said.

McNeil had been married, but the couple separated nearly two decades ago, according to Theresa Noa, who is married to his ex-wife’s brother. She said McNeil had four children from that marriage.