The Manhattan district attorney is investigating Lashawn McNeil’s connection to anti-government groups; Mayor Eric Adams said an assault weapon was found under his mattress.
Lashawn McNeil, the man who the New York City police said shot and killed one officer and critically wounded another in Harlem last week, died on Monday, two police officials said.
Mr. McNeil, 47, was accused of ambushing Officers Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27, while they responded to a report of a domestic incident at Mr. McNeil’s mother’s home on Friday night. Officer Rivera was pronounced dead at the hospital on Friday; Officer Mora remains in critical condition.
Mr. McNeil was shot in the arm and the head by a third police officer — a rookie cop, who was along on the call to observe — when he attempted to leave the scene, the police said. He was taken to the hospital, where he died on Monday, the officials said.
Neither Mr. McNeil’s mother nor his brother, both of whom were at the scene Friday night, could be reached for comment. They have not offered any accounts of the events publicly.
According to the police, Officers Rivera and Mora were responding around 6:30 p.m. on Friday to a call from a woman who said her son had threatened her. Mr. McNeil’s mother and brother met officers at the door, and said Mr. McNeil was barricaded in a bedroom down a narrow hallway.
As Officers Rivera and Mora approached the bedroom, Mr. McNeil emerged and began firing, wielding a .45-caliber handgun equipped with a drum magazine that could hold an additional 40 rounds. Police officials said the gun had been reported stolen in Baltimore years ago.
Mr. McNeil, who lived in Baltimore, had been in New York to help his mother after a medical procedure, the police said.
Announcing a plan to combat gun violence in the city on Monday, Mayor Eric Adams said that in addition to the modified .45-caliber handgun that Mr. McNeil used to shoot the officers, a “loaded assault rifle” had been found under Mr. McNeil’s mattress. He did not provide further details on the weapon or its origins.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office are investigating Friday’s police shooting, and looking into the origins of the gun, as well as Mr. McNeil’s possible membership in the Sovereign Citizens Movement, an anti-government hate group.
