New York, USA. – A year after being killed alongside his colleague and compatriot Wilbert Mora, Dominican-origin police officer Jason Rivera will become a father.
His widow, Dominique Luzuriaga, made the announcement on Saturday after a mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the first anniversary of the fateful day her husband lost his life in a shooting.
Luzuriaga said she will be a mother in the coming months, thanks to a “medical miracle.”
Mora has also prolonged his life, as his heart and four other organs were donated.
“Although Jason will not be here physically to see and experience our miracle, I know he will always be here in spirit, waiting for us, protecting us, and loving us,” said the widow as she wiped away her tears.
Luzuriaga became pregnant using her deceased husband’s semen.
“I am blessed to say that Jason and I will be expecting our miracle this spring.”
Rivera and Mora were shot and killed on the afternoon of Friday, January 21, 2022, when they responded to a 911 call from a mother reporting domestic violence from her son in Harlem.
Sumit Sulan, another young officer present at the ambush, shot the gunman Lashawn McNeil, a 47-year-old ex-convict, who died three days later in the hospital.
The case prompted President Joe Biden’s visit to New York to attend the funerals, calling the three involved NYPD officers “heroes.”
“Through sadness and pain, there can also be a great birth,” Luzuriaga, the final speaker at the crowded service in honor of Rivera and his colleague Mora, declared. “I am blessed to say that Jason and I will be expecting our miracle this spring.”
