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New York City may have some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, but that hasn’t stopped Mayor Eric Adams from calling for still more restrictions in the wake of the shooting deaths of a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer.

When NYPD officers, Wilbert Mora, 27, Jason Rivera, 22, and a third unidentified officer approached Lashawn McNeil on Friday, McNeil responded by opening fire. The two had gone to McNeil’s apartment, where McNeil’s son told the police that his father was in the back bedroom. McNeil then kicked opened the bedroom door and started firing.

This resulted in Mora being hospitalized and reported by CBS New York to be “fighting for his life,” while Rivera was killed outright.

McNeil is alleged to have used a .45 caliber Glock pistol that had been stolen in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2017. This prompted Adams to hammer for more gun control, passing the blame to Washington D.C. for allowing firearms into the city:

There are no gun manufacturers in our city. How are we removing thousands of guns off our streets and somehow they still find their way into the hands of killers?

We need Washington to act now to stop the flow of weapons into our cities.

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 22, 2022

Adams then continued, saying that the only way forward was to unite behind gun control:

We are all witnesses. To gun violence. To these murders. To the failures of leaders who have allowed these killers to get ahold of guns.

We won’t allow violence to divide our city. It will unite us — being united is the only way we can save our city.

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 22, 2022

McNeil has an extensive criminal record, and was on probation, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig in a press conference at Harlem Hospital, reported Fox News. McNeil’s rap sheet also including four arrests outside of New York State, for such crimes as possession of an unlawful weapon in South Carolina, assaulting a police officer in Pennsylvania, and felony drug charges, also in Pennsylvania.

During the confrontation, the unidentified third officer shot McNeil in the arm and head. McNeil survived these injuries and went into surgery at Harlem Hospital. The status of McNeil and his injuries is unknown at time of writing, as is the third officer who reportedly suffered some injuries as well (presumably not severe enough to warrant extensive hospitalization).

After the incident, the NYPD took to Twitter to eulogize Rivera:

Tonight, we mourn the loss of a hero officer — a son, husband, and friend. Only 22 years old, Police Officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the line of duty. We vow to #NeverForget Jason as his fellow Finest vow to honor his tremendous legacy of service & the ultimate sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/5zsx45XiM4

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 22, 2022

Given that New York already has almost every gun-control law ever imagined, Adams was unable to follow up his comment with proposals for yet more restrictions.

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