Mourners Remember N.Y.P.D. Officer Killed in Shooting: ‘He Was Joy’
A sea of blue stretched down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Friday, as thousands of police officers gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to bid farewell to Detective Jason Rivera a week after he was killed responding to a domestic disturbance call in Harlem.
Detective Rivera’s death just 14 months after he joined the Police Department made him a symbol of the city’s hope and fears at a moment fraught with uncertainty about its future.
A son of Dominican immigrants, he had fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming a police officer during the pandemic as rising crime and the police killing of George Floyd roiled the city and strained his profession.
Mayor Eric Adams, in his eulogy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said that Detective Rivera joined the department for the right reasons — to make change from within — and that his death was a reminder of what officers put on the line each day. He vowed to combat the “senseless violence” that led to the deaths of Detective Rivera and his partner.
