A portion of Manhattan stood silent on Sunday afternoon as the body of fallen NYPD officer, 22-year-old Jason Rivera, was transferred from the Medical Examiner’s Office to a funeral home, ahead of a service and burial later this week.
Police officers, firefighters and EMS members lined the streets from the office on 30th Street in Manhattan and up along First Avenue just after 12:30pm. Hundreds stood in silence before saluting while a hearse transported his body uptown.
The moving sight came as his grieving widow posted a moving tribute to her husband on Instagram on Sunday.
'Fly high my beautiful angel,' she wrote, together with a picture of Rivera's locker that she took at the NYPD's 32nd Precinct in central Harlem. The pair had been married for just over three months.
'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.
The widow of NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, posted an emotional tribute to him online. 'Fly high my beautiful angel,' she wrote, together with a picture of Rivera's locker
Jason Rivera is pictured together with his wife whom he had married last October
The couple were married on October 9, 2021 and had some pictures taken in New Jersey
'I love you till the end of time,' Rivera's grieving widow, pictured, wrote
'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,' Rivera's grieving widow wrote.
Rivera was shot dead on Friday night during an ambush as he and his partner, Officer Wilbert Mora, were both shot by ambushed by Lashawn McNeil, 47, as they visited a Harlem address to investigate a domestic-violence call.
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.
NYPD Officers Wilbert Mora, 27, left, and Jason Rivera, 22, right. The two officers were shot while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. Rivera was killed while Mora is 'fighting for his life' in hospital
NYPD police officers salute their fallen comrade Jason Rivera as he is taken into Riverdale Funeral Home in New York
Rivera, 22, of the 32nd Precinct was killed in the line of duty. A funeral is planned for Rivera later this week at St. Patrick's Cathedral
NYPD police officers line Broadway in honor of their fallen comrade Jason Rivera
Police officers and firefighters from the FDNY can be seen standing on the roadside in tribute
Members of the emergency services are seen standing on the street outside the 32nd Precinct
Officers Rivera and Mora were shot while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son.
McNeil is said to have ran from a back bedroom of the Harlem apartment and opened fire.
Rivera lost his life while Mora, 27, is still fighting for his and remains in Harlem Hospital having undergone two surgeries to remove a bullet that had become stuck in his brain.
Funeral services for Officer Rivera were being finalized, as his comrades in blue mourned his loss. The officer had previously written how he joined the force to make a difference in what he had described as a 'chaotic city.'
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.
Officers stood behind their police bikes outside the fallen officer's police precinct in Harlem
A cyclist rides past NYPD police officers while they hold attention in honor of their fallen comrade Jason Rivera
A makeshift memorial is seen outside the NYPD 32nd precinct near the scene of the shooting
A man puts a candle at a makeshift memorial outside the NYPD 32nd precinct in Harlem
A man lights a candle at a makeshift memorial outside the NYPD 32nd precinct on Sunday
Burial rites were scheduled for Friday with a service scheduled for Thursday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora were shot Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son. Mora, 27, suffered a serious head wound, police said.
The medical examiner ruled Rivera´s death a homicide after an autopsy found he died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
During a Sunday morning appearance on CNN, Mayor Eric Adams stressed the urgency 'to deal with the underlying issues that are impacting crime in our city and has become a stain on the inner cities across our country.'
Adams said his police force would revamp a plainclothes anti-crime unit aimed at getting guns off the streets. The unit had been disbanded in 2020 over concerns it accounted for a disproportionate number of shootings and complaints.
'The symbol of that soiled coat
