NEW YORK — The second New York Police Department officer to die from a Harlem apartment shootout will be laid to rest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral a few days after his partner’s funeral.
A wake for Officer Wilbert Mora will be held at the iconic Midtown church on Tuesday beginning at 1 p.m. with his funeral set for 10 a.m. the next day, police announced.
A funeral for his partner, Police Officer Jason Rivera, will be held at St. Patrick’s this Friday.
Mora, 27, clung to life for four days following the Friday evening shooting, with his family directing doctors to remove his heart, liver, pancreas and both kidneys for donations expected to save multiple lives, officials said.
“Wilbert is three times a hero,” said NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell in a statement Tuesday announcing his death. “For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation. Our heads are bowed & our hearts are heavy.”
Mora’s liver, kidneys, heart and pancreas were en route to three people on the New York state organ donation list and two people out of state, said Leonard Achan, president and CEO of LiveOnNY, which oversees and facilitates organ donation in New York.
Mora died at NYU Langone Medical Center, where he was transferred Sunday from Harlem Hospital. Fellow Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed alongside Mora last Friday while answering a 911 call on a dispute between a Harlem woman and her ex-convict son Lashawn McNeil. Sources told the Daily News the fight started in part over the shooter’s strict vegan diet.
The gunman exited a bedroom and opened fire on the officers without warning in the hallway of the W. 135th Street apartment, police said. NYPD rookie Sumit Sulan, who was waiting with McNeil’s mother, shot McNeil, who died Monday.
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