Thousands Mourn N.Y.P.D. Officer Whose Dreams Ended With Fatal Shooting
The New York Times
Wilbert Mora, one of two officers killed after responding to a 911 call in Harlem last month, was remembered at his funeral for his warmth and compassion.
A boy born in the Dominican Republic knew after he arrived in New York City, just 7 years old, that he wanted to be a police officer. And over the 20 years that followed, the boy grew tall and broad and earned his badge.
On Wednesday, 12 days after he was trapped in a bullet-fueled attack in a Harlem hallway, that officer, Wilbert D. Mora, who at 27 impressed his seniors with his diligence and quiet manner in just three years on the job, was laid to rest before thousands at a funeral under the soaring arches of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
It was a pageant of hard-trained discipline and precision befitting an officer known to stay at any given call until the problem was solved to his satisfaction. Row after row of blue in the cathedral pews faced the egg-white vestments of the city’s Roman Catholic leaders on the altar. Outside, more officers than could fit in a dozen cathedrals lined a muted Fifth Avenue.
