A police officer was killed and another seriously injured in a shooting at a residence in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem on Friday.

The suspect was shot by police and is in hospital.

At a press conference, Chief of Detectives James Essig said that at 6.15 pm three officers responded to a call from a woman in a dispute with her son.

Upon entering an apartment, officers spoke with a son and the mother, who informed officers the son she was disputing with was in a back bedroom.

Two officers went down a narrow hallway towards the bedroom when the door swung open and “numerous shots were fired, striking both officers – one fatally, and one is here in Harlem Hospital in critical condition,” Essig said.

Lashawn J. McNeil

A gunman identified as Lashawn J. McNeil was shot by police Friday night in New York City after allegedly shooting two officers, killing one, authorities say.[/caption]The suspect, Lashawn McNeill, 47, was shot by the third officer in the arm and the head as he tried to leave. He is in critical condition.

The officer who was killed was identified by police as 22-year-old Jason Rivera.

“I am struggling to find the word to express the tragedy we are enduring,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the press conference. “We are mourning and we are angry.”

“The three officers who arrived at that scene were doing their job,” she said, adding that “in a moment, a young 22-year-old life was ended and another forever altered.”

Mayor Eric Adams, a former policeman, was also at Harlem Hospital where the injured officer was taken, and where others gathered.

“This week alone, four of our officers have been shot. An 11 month old baby was shot. This isn’t just an attack on the NYPD. It’s an attack on New York City,” Adams said.

The mayor, who took office on Jan. 1 and is the former police commissioner, came to office after an electoral campaign in which insecurity was one of the arguments he repeated the most, promising to return order to the city, starting with a greater police presence.

The incident is the latest in a recent spate of violence in the city, including two officers shot in the leg in separate incidents this week, one who was injured when he was shot in his car on New Year’s Day, and the fatalities of a 40-year-old woman who was shoved into the path of a subway train, another 19-year-old woman who was shot during a Burger King robbery, and the baby girl who was hit by a stray bullet, according to local media. EFE

© 2022 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.

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