Funeral services for slain NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora to be held next week at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Funeral services for Wilbert Mora — the 27-year-old police officer who died Tuesday of injuries he suffered last week while responding to a mother-son dispute in Harlem — are planned for next week at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, the NYPD said Wednesday.

The church is also holding the funeral this week for Officer Jason Rivera, who was slain in the same shooting on Friday night.

The wake for Mora is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 1, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the funeral Mass on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 10 a.m., according to the NYPD's press office.

Rivera's wake is scheduled for Thursday, also from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Mass on Friday at 9 a.m.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, will preside over both Masses, according to diocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan and is the seat of the archdiocese, has been the venue of hundreds of funeral Masses for police officers, firefighters and military personnel who died in the line of duty. But it's much rarer for the cathedral itself to host a wake, Zwilling said.

Meanwhile, Mora's organs, which were procured shortly before his death, saved five lives, according to LiveOnNY, the nonprofit that coordinates organ and tissue donations in the metro area, from Poughkeepsie to Montauk.

Spokeswoman Ali McSherry said Mora wasn't a registered organ donor, but his family decided to make the donations — his heart, liver, two kidneys and a pancreas, which went to three people in New York and two outside of the state.

Rivera and Mora, both Roman Catholics, suffered fatal gunshot wounds early Friday evening in Harlem while responding to a 911 call at an apartment from a mother seeking help dealing with her son, Lashawn McNeil, 47.

Police said he opened fire after Rivera and Mora walked to a bedroom in the rear of the apartment to speak with him. A third officer on the call then shot McNeil, who died Monday.

Mora's death was the next day, at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, where he was transported and his organs removed for donation.

"Wilbert is 3 times a hero. For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation. Our heads are bowed & our hearts are heavy," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted Tuesday.

Cardinal Dolan had visited Mora and his mother at Harlem Hospital, where Mora was initially treated over the weekend. Dolan likened her suffering to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

"I said to Wilbert's mother, ‘You're like Mary at the foot of the cross, there when her son Jesus was dying, and we hope, we trust, that he [Mora] will not die, but if he does, he's part of the Resurrection,’" Dolan said Saturday, adding: "And she's a woman of faith, and everybody was saying that to her, do not be afraid, do not give up hope."

By Matthew Chayes

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Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.