Two NYPD officers who were murdered last year posthumously received the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor from President Biden on Wednesday.
Detectives Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were shot on Jan. 21, 2022, by 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil while responding to a domestic call in an East Harlem apartment.
Rivera, 22, had been on the job for less than a year. Mora, 27, was a four-year veteran of New York’s Finest.
“Our nation is forever in debt to their loved ones and the sacrifice they made on behalf of their fellow citizens,” Biden said before presenting the medals to Mora’s mother and Rivera’s widow.
The president had previously honored the slain officers during his State of the Union address last year in response to calls from left-wing Democrats to “Defund the police.”
Biden also met with the families of Mora and Rivera when he visited the Big Apple last year.
Detective Sumit Sulan, who fatally shot McNeil, was also presented with the Medal of Valor, the nation’s top honor for public safety officers.
NYPD Officers Wilbert Mora (left) and Jason Rivera were killed in a 2022 ambush. The officers were posthumously promoted to detectives. APFDNY Lt. Justin Hespeler, firefighter Patrick Thornton and retired Lt. Jason Hickey were also honored at the White House Wednesday.
Hespeler rescued a newborn baby from a burning house in Canarsie last November despite an “evacuate immediately” order issued to first responders as the structure crumbled.
“Justin searched through the smoke as fast as he could, crawling through the hall until he found a 5-week-old old baby in his crib. Justin shielded the newborn with his body, crawled back through the smoke to the window, and down to safety,” Biden recounted.
Firefighter Patrick Thornton was also honored at the White House after saving a man trapped under a capsized vessel off the coast of Staten Island. AP“New York’s Bravest, New York’s Bravest.”
Hickey saved a man who had been swept into a storm tunnel in the surging Harlem River underneath the Triborough Bridge last September, the president said.
“Spotting his only chance to save the man, Lieutenant Hickey dove into the water. He swam 25 feet deep into the dark, black, four-by-four foot tunnel where the young man was,” Biden said. “He pulled the man to the boat, saving his life while risking his own. That’s bravery”
Thornton saved a man trapped under a capsized vessel two miles off the coast of Staten Island months earlier, the president said.
“Without hesitation, firefighter Thorton removed his safety equipment and dove in. Imagine, diving under a sinking boat weighing literally a ton,” he recalled.
“Somehow Patrick grabbed [him] and swam him out from underneath that sinking boat,” Biden continued. “That’s true heroism. That’s true heroism.”
Three others received the honor from Biden: a Houston police officer, a Colorado police officer and an Ohio sheriff’s deputy.
With Post wires
