Mom of alleged NYC cop killer says she regrets calling 911 before ambush
She says her son fixated on guns, struggled with mental illness
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The mother of a New York City man accused of gunning down two NYPD officers before a third returned fire told local media Monday that her son had "a fixation on guns," suffered from mental illness and lost vision in his left eye after a brawl with gang members as a younger man.
She also said she regretted phoning in the domestic violence altercation that dispatched police to her Harlem home.
Shirley Sourzes called 911 Friday to report a domestic incident involving her 47-year-old son, Lashawn McNeil.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lashawn McNeil, the 47-year-old suspect accused of shooting two NYPD officers in Harlem Friday, killing one and leaving the other critical injured, has died, according to authorities. (NYPD)
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After police arrived, he allegedly ambushed them in her one-bedroom Harlem apartment, opening fire with a .45-caliber handgun with a high-capacity drum magazine.
The gunfire killed rookie NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, and left Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, fighting for his life in critical condition. McNeil succumbed to his injuries Monday afternoon, a day after Mora was transferred to New York University's Langone Medical Center, still in critical condition.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A third officer, later identified as Sumit Sulan, was in a different room when gunfire erupted at 119 West 135th Street, in the NYPD’s 32nd Precinct. He drew his own weapon and critically wounded the alleged gunman.
NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, 22, was killed in the line of duty Friday night. (NYPD)
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"If I knew, I never would have made the phone call," Sourzes told the New York Post Monday, reportedly through tears. "I would never have called."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She also extended condolences to Rivera’s parents.
"I know that there is not words that I can express, your pain, your sorrow," she told the paper. "My and my family are not proud of my son taking a life."
She also shed light on her son’s violent past – painting him as a gang-involved man struggling with mental illness. She said that the blindness in her son's left eye happened after he shot at gang members with a B.B. gun – and they beat him in the face with a bottle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When reached by Fox News Digital, a man who answered the phone at the number listed for Sourzes Monday sighed and hung up.
Police said they recovered a "loaded AR-15" under McNeil's mattress after the shooting. (NYPD)
Following the shootout, police searched the apartment and found a loaded semiautomatic rifle under McNeil’s mattress.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer himself, called for tackling the city’s rising gun violence at a news conference Monday afternoon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He said gun trafficking should be a federal crime and that certain firearms offenses, like straw purchases to sidestep background checks for criminals, should have stiffer penalties.
"Now that police officers and crime victims have an advocate in City Hall, the real work begins," NY Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said in a statement Monday. "In addition to the measures proposed today, we need an immediate rollback of the entire policy regime that penalizes police officers for proactively confronting lawbreakers. We need stiffer penalties, consistently imposed, for gun crimes. And we need more resources to relieve the overstretched cops on the front lines."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rivera is set to be laid to rest on Friday.
"In his memory, and in the memory of all those who have been killed by gun violence, New York we will rise up again, rise up to protect each other," Adams said.