NEW YORK — Heartbreak gave way to shock and joy Saturday at a St. Patrick’s Cathedral memorial for two slain New York City Police Department officers, with the teary widow of one cop announcing the couple’s surprise pregnancy to cheers.
“Through sorrow and pain can also be a great birth,” declared Dominque Luzuriaga, the last speaker at the crowded service honoring her husband Jason Rivera and his partner Wilbert Mora. “I am blessed to say that Jason and I will be expecting our miracle this spring.”
The audience inside the Midtown church rose to their feet in applause after the the mother-to-be shared the revelation on the first anniversary of the Jan. 21, 2022, line-of-duty deaths of her spouse and Rivera.
“Although Jason won’t be here in physical form to see and experience our miracle, I know he will always be here in spirit, waiting and protecting an loving us,” said the widow as she wiped away tears.
A high-ranking police source confirmed Dominique became pregnant using her late husband’s semen. The wife of Officer Wenjian Liu, killed on duty in December 2014, delivered a daughter after his death with sperm taken from her late husband, and she said Dominique had done the same.
“I am incredibly happy and excited for Dominique,” said the officer’s widow Sanny Liu after the service, which she attended with her 5-year-old Angelina. “Dominique has a big heart and deep love for her husband. Dominique is such a special woman and the baby is going to be extremely special.”
The stunning announcement came after an emotional Luzuriaga detailed the dark and difficult days after Rivera’s sudden death.
“I lost my husband, my partner, my friend,” she said. “... There are still days I feel alone. I feel like I’m walking through a dark tunnel.”
Mora, 27, and his rookie partner Rivera, 22, were gunned down one year earlier while answering a domestic violence call, with the pair ambushed by an ex-convict living with his mother inside a Harlem apartment.
The slain Mora gave the gift of life to five strangers with a donation of his heart and four other organs.
Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who spoke at the funerals of both officers last year, returned to St. Patrick’s to remember the heroic cops at a service where the wounds remained open 365 days later.
“A tremendous amount of sadness and grief remains, but our mission to build a safer city is never ending,” said Adams, a former city cop. “Let us live as detectives Rivera and Mora lived: with dedication to this city, to each other and to the noble pursuit of peace.”
Sewell, on the job only three weeks when the NYPD was hit with the double tragedy, said the department continued to honor the memories of the two slain officers.
“In this hallowed space, we honor and remember two vibrant souls ... committed to this city,” she said. “Jason and Wilbert live on. We carry the batons ... of the lives, the dreams and the legacies of these First Grade detectives.”
Rivera created a stir at her husband’s funeral last year by calling out Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over what critics called his lax approach to prosecuting criminals.
“The system continues to fail us,” she said from the pulpit. “We are not safe any more, not even the members of the service. I know you are tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA.”
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