NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Five people were saved after they received organs donated by slain NYPD officer Wilbert Mora, officials said Wednesday.
Mora, who was mortally wounded in a shooting ambush at a Harlem apartment Friday, was kept on life support and transferred from Harlem Hospital to NYU Langone Medical Center over the weekend so that his organs could be donated in accordance with his and his family’s wishes.
“When Officer Wilbert Mora's family was notified of his passing, his family knew their brave and dedicated son would want to continue to save lives, even in death,” said Leonard Achan, the president and CEO of LiveOnNY, an organ procurement organization.
Mora, 27, was removed from life support Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, calling him “three times a hero” for choosing a life of service, sacrificing his life to protect others, and donating his organs.
Achan said Wednesday that Mora’s donation helped save the lives of five people who were in urgent need of organ transplants.
“Officer Mora’s final gift was the gift of life to others in need,” Achan said in a statement, adding that the officer’s “heroic gift of organ donation” went to people awaiting a heart, liver, two kidneys and pancreas.
Achan said three people in New York and two people out of state received life-saving transplants from Mora.
“We are humbled and honored to be the steward of these gifts on behalf of Officer Mora and his family so others may live on,” Achan said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mora’s body was transported from the medical examiner’s office in Kips Bay to the Riverdale Funeral Home in Inwood. An NYPD procession was seen on the FDR Drive, and hundreds of officers lined up and saluted Mora outside the funeral home on Broadway.
Mora and his partner, 22-year-old Jason Rivera, were responding to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment on W. 135th Street on Friday evening when they were both shot. Rivera died a short time later.
The gunman, 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, was shot by a third officer and died Monday, according to police.
Police said McNeil used a handgun that had been reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017 and that the gun was equipped with a high-capacity magazine. A loaded semi-automatic rifle was also found under his mattress, police said.
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