The young NYPD officer critically wounded by a gunman who killed his partner in Harlem is being transferred to another hospital as he continues to fight for his life Sunday.
Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, was scheduled to be moved from Harlem Hospital to to NYU Langone Medical Center at 5 p.m., NYPD officials said Sunday afternoon.
Mora and his partner, Officer Jason Rivera, 22, were responding to a 911 call Friday night when they were ambushed by Lashawn McNeil, 40, who burst from his bedroom with a Glock .45 handgun with a drum clip capable of holding 40 rounds, cops said.
McNeil opened fire on the officers, killing Rivera with his first shots and critically wounding Mora, police sources said. Responding Officer Sumit Sulan returned fire, critically wounding the killer ex-con, police said.
Mora’s prognosis was “literally 50-50 right now,” a colleague of the wounded officer said Saturday.
On Sunday, Mora’s neighbor, Evelyn Gonzalez, 63, said her heart sank when she learned he’d been shot.
“When I saw it on the TV I told my daughter Kimmy, ‘That’s that kid that lives down the hall!’” she said. “You can’t even be a cop.”
Gonzalez uses a walker and Mora always used to hold the door for her, she said.
“He was very serious. He was a very good kid,” she said. “They’re good people. They’re very decent people.”
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