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u.s. news Diahuebs 3 Februari 2022

NYC honors officer at funeral hours after another is shot

(AP) — Throngs of po- and believed in protecting his Mora, who came to the U.S.
lice converged Wednes- fellow man, regardless of the in childhood, joined the
day for New York City’s danger to himself,” his pre- NYPD after graduating from
second funeral in a week cinct commander, Inspector John Jay College of Criminal
for an officer ambushed Amir Yakatally, said in a eu- Justice. As a student who’d
while answering a call for logy. grown up in East Harlem, he
help in Harlem, mourning was interested in improving
Wilbert Mora hours after Dedicated, thorough and an relations between police and
yet another colleague was aspiring sergeant, “he was a the neighborhoods they pa-
shot and wounded. guy to rely on to make the trolled.
right call,” Yakatally said.
Organ music filled Fifth Av- Mora made 33 arrests dur-
enue as Mora’s funeral began Mora’s contributions to oth- ing his few years on the job,
Wednesday morning at the ers continued after his death, while impressing fellow offi-
Roman Catholic cathedral when the 27-year-old’s or- cers and supervisors as hum-
where his police partner, Ja- gans were donated to five dif- ble, helpful, eager to learn
son Rivera, was eulogized ferent people in need. and keen to cultivate bonds er,” Linden, New Jersey, Of-
Friday. Both young officers with co-workers. ficer Raymond Wegrzynek, Before last month, the
were shot Jan. 21 while re- Mora’s funeral came shortly 34, said outside St. Patrick’s NYPD had last lost an offi-
sponding to a call about a do- after the sixth shooting this “Wilbert was the perfect can- Cathedral on Wednesday for cer in the line of duty when
mestic argument in an apart- year of an NYPD officer. didate to join the NYPD,” Po- the latest in a series of police Anastasios Tsakos was hit by
ment. lice Commissioner Keechant funerals he has attended in a suspected drunken driver in
An off-duty police officer Sewell said Wednesday as his six years of police work. May 2021 at the scene of an
Mora, a Dominican immi- was shot and wounded when she posthumously promoted “It’s a thing that we do. We earlier wreck.
grant, joined the police force two men approached him at him, like Rivera, to detec- all come together.”
in 2018, hoping to help re- a Queens traffic light as he tive. “No one had to tell him No on-duty NYPD officer
shape relations between the drove to work Tuesday night, to become a police officer. It The gunman who killed had been fatally shot since
New York Police Depart- police said. The officer was was all he ever wanted to do.” Mora and the 22-year-old Ri- September 2019, when Brian
ment and communities that stable at a hospital Wednes- vera, Lashawn McNeil, died Mulkeen was hit by a fellow
have chafed at its tactics. day, and two men were ar- “It’s a horrible loss for the after a third officer shot him officer’s fire during a struggle
rested. community, for the city, for as he tried to flee, officials with an armed man.
“He policed with empathy anyone that’s a first respond- said.

UCLA classes resume after ex-lecturer arrested over threats

(AP) — Classes resumed ferred to federal custody. It rado and reached out to law that encounter. Harris makes racist com-
Wednesday at the Univer- wasn’t immediately known enforcement in Boulder on ments in several of the videos
sity of California, Los An- if Harris had a lawyer who Monday. Authorities said he attempted and cryptically names specific
geles after a former lec- could speak on his behalf. to buy a handgun in No- locations on the UCLA cam-
turer was arrested on sus- University officials did not vember but his purchase pus, noting that they’ve been
picion of threatening vio- Months before the threats describe the email but Los was denied. Officials believe added to his “list,” according
lence against the school against UCLA, Harris was Angeles Police Department the transaction did not go to the Times.
in online videos and an the subject of a restraining Chief Michel Moore said through because of a Califor-
800-page document sent order after sending threaten- Harris was “potentially plan- nia-based protection order The UCLA video included
via email. ing messages saying he would ning for a mass violence or that said he could not pur- footage from the 2017 mass
“hunt” and kill a professor, shooting event at UCLA.” chase or possess a firearm. shooting at a Las Vegas mu-
Matthew Harris, 31, was tak- court documents show. The university has more than sic festival, the newspaper re-
en into custody Tuesday in 31,000 undergraduate stu- Harris was placed on leave ported, as well as clips from
Colorado following a stand- UCLA officials canceled in- dents and 14,000 graduate from UCLA last year and a “Zero Day” — a 2003 film
off at his Boulder apartment person classes Tuesday after students. philosophy professor at the that was loosely based on the
complex that ended peace- police said Harris, who had University of California, Ir- mass shooting at Colorado’s
fully. lectured in the UCLA phi- UCLA freshman Celine Tru- vine was granted a restrain- Columbine High School.
losophy department, sent the ong told KTLA Wednesday ing order against him after
Colorado prosecutors said email early Sunday to some morning that she was “so he sent emails to his mother Harris, who didn’t appear to
late Tuesday that federal of his former students. The ready” to be back to in-per- threatening to “hunt” the have any criminal record, be-
charges were pending against university’s police depart- son learning. professor and “put bullets in gan working at UCLA in the
Harris and that he was trans- ment tracked Harris to Colo- her skull.” Harris’ mother spring of 2019 as a postdoc-
“Everybody on campus was alerted the woman. toral fellow, according to a
so scared,” she said. newsletter from the universi-
Harris’ mother and the pro- ty’s philosophy department.
In Boulder, Police Chief fessor could not be reached His focus was on “philoso-
Maris Herold said officials for comment. phy of race, personal identity,
reviewed the manifesto and and related issues in philoso-
“we identified thousands of The police search for Harris phy of mind.”
references to violence, stating began after he sent his for-
things such as killing, death, mer students an email early On bruinwalk.com, a web-
murder, shootings, bombs, Sunday that was full of slurs site where UCLA students
schoolyard massacre in Boul- against Jewish and East Asian can post anonymous reviews
der and phrases like ‘burn people, according to the Los of professors and other staff
and attack Boulder outside of Angeles Times. The email members, Harris got low
the university.’” included links to what po- ratings. In one review, a stu-
lice termed a manifesto and dent wrote that Harris is “ex-
Herold said police had con- videos, the Times reported, tremely unprofessional.”
tact with Harris in October, including one titled “UCLA
though no criminal charges PHILOSOPHY (MASS “I have no idea how this guy
were filed, and authorities are SHOOTING).” is still teaching,” another stu-
reviewing their reports from dent wrote.