Transcript: Mayor Adams Visits Federal Officer Who Was Shot in 33rd Precinct Last Night and Briefs Media

July 20, 2025

Video available at: https://youtu.be/3_gXeivxS8c

Mayor Eric Adams: Afternoon, I'm joined here by Police Commissioner Tisch, Deputy Mayor Daughtry, and Director Russo from the Custom and Border [Protection], and we are here to just first give our prayers to the family members of one of our partners in public safety that was struck twice with a bullet. I thank God that he's still with him and receiving the care from this excellent hospital, Harlem Hospital. 

I could not help but to remember being here when Officer Mora and Rivera were executed and they were brought here to the hospital and hearing the loud cries of their family members. Public safety is a dangerous assignment and all of us who have done it or who are currently doing it, we do it with the full understanding, not only on duty but off duty, that danger still exists. 

This issue, an incident of this shooting, is a clear example of everything that's broken by our criminal justice system. One, the perpetrator or the person of interest that we have in custody has been known to have repeated interactions with law enforcement, violent interactions with law enforcement. The second, the overproliferation of guns, although we've removed over 22,000, bad guys continue to get guns in their possessions and they're not afraid to use them. 

And thirdly, something that I've talked about often, the violent migrant and asylum seekers who are bringing violence and really tarnish the reputation of those who come to this country to pursue the American dream. We have to be quick and swift to deal with those who believe they're going to inflict violence, not only on documented New Yorkers, but they are known to commit violence on undocumented New Yorkers. 

And so, I want to thank our federal law enforcement partners, Customs and Border [Protection] and HSI for joining us today. And I'm sorry that we're here for this unfortunate incident. We expect our city and state and federal law enforcement officers to always keep an eye out for trouble, both on and off duty, and that's what we see in this incident. Their training teaches them to always be prepared no matter what, be ready to protect themselves and protect the public. 

And last night, an off-duty federal officer for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection was in Riverside Park when an unexpected situation became a reality. Shortly before midnight last night, the 42-year-old male federal officer was with a friend with two perpetrators, two predators, on a moped approach. One male dismounted the scooter, displayed a firearm, and approached the two who were just trying to enjoy the city like so many of us do during a hot evening hour. 

According to the video, investigators recovered from the scene, it appears that our perpetrator discharged at least two shots, striking the officer in his face and forearm. The federal officer returned fire. I just visited the officer as he makes his recovery. His mom and his family members were there, and they thanked the city for their response. 

Police Commissioner Tisch is going to provide more detail in a minute, but as of now I want to announce that we have a person of interest in custody. In New York City, this 21-year-old male has prior arrests for assault and violating an order of protection. At the time of this shooting, he had an active bench warrant from the Bronx, was wanted for a robbery from last December and a stabbing from January. A robbery from last December and a stabbing in January. 

In less than one year, he has inflicted violence in our city. And once he is charged for last night's crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet. This individual also had an extradition warrant from Massachusetts for kidnapping and was the subject of a federal deportation order after illegally entering the country in 2023. 

Violence of this kind will never, never be accepted in this city. We want to thank our partners, and again, our heart goes out to the family members who are involved in all of New York. I want to now turn it over to Commissioner Tisch.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Thank you, sir. Good afternoon. The information I'm about to provide is preliminary and is subject to change. I'm going to brief you on a shooting incident that occurred last night in Riverside Park in the confines of the 3-3 precinct, in which the victim was an off-duty Customs and Border Protections officer. 

The details are as follows. Yesterday, July 19th, at 11:53 p.m., the officer was sitting on the rocks along the waterside. Two males rode up to him on a scooter, and the passenger got off and approached him from behind. One of the perpetrators produced a firearm, at which point the officer realized that he was being robbed and drew his service weapon in defense. The perp fired first, and an exchange of gunfire followed. The officer was struck in the forearm and in the face. 

This was all captured, as the mayor said, on CCTV, which also shows that the perp was injured by the gunfire and limped back to the scooter. The perp and his accomplice, the driver of the scooter, then fled the scene. At this time, we have no indication that the officer was targeted for his employment. 

Detectives have not yet recovered the perp's firearm, but we did recover discharged shell casings, both .380 caliber and 9mm. The 9mm are consistent with the officer's service weapon. We also recovered blood at the scene, which is now being processed for DNA evidence and compared to bloody clothing, later recovered as part of the investigation. 

At this time, we are investigating a person of interest in relation to this shooting. Miguel Mora, a 21-year-old male, walked into Bronx Care Hospital at 12:18 a.m. with gunshot wounds to the groin and the leg, consistent with the injuries sustained by the perp, as captured on the CCTV video that our detectives have reviewed. He was then transported to Lincoln Hospital, where he underwent surgery. 

Our initial investigation reveals that Mr. Mora entered the country illegally in 2023 through Arizona. This individual has two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York, and he has an active warrant after not showing up to a court date on one of those cases. 

Additionally, Mr. Mora was wanted by this department on both a robbery from December 2024 and a felony assault stabbing from January 2025, both of which occurred in the Bronx. He is currently in our custody at Lincoln Hospital and is expected to be arrested today for both incidents. 

Mr. Mora is also wanted outside of New York and Massachusetts for the robbery of a pawn shop in which guns were stolen in February 2025. The NYPD is working hand-in-hand with Customs and Border Protection through the HSI Violent Gang Task Force to confirm that the person of interest in custody is the perp who shot the officer, as well as find and apprehend his accomplice. 

We are also working with the Southern District of New York on this case. Of course, if anyone has any information about this incident or the whereabouts of the accomplice, we urge you to call Crimestoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. I will now turn it over to Director Frank Russo from Customs and Border Protection.

Francis Russo, Director, Field Operations, Customs and Border Protection: Thank you, Commissioner Tisch. And first and foremost, I want to thank the NYPD and their incredible efforts to help save our officer. The location in the park where the incident occurred is one where an ambulance would not be able to get to quickly, and NYPD was very quick to escort our officer to the hospital and help save his life. 

And we also want to thank the Mayor's Office for all of his support. This investigation is one that we are cooperating fully with the NYPD and with Homeland Security Investigations and our Internal Affairs Office as well. 

Let's make something incredibly clear tonight, today. Our officer is a hero. He did exactly what we ask of all of our officers under the circumstances. He executed our mission, which is to protect the country, and he did it by stopping a threat. If not for his efforts, this person of interest would have committed more armed robberies. And so, we are grateful for his efforts. We expect him to make a speedy recovery, and our hearts go out to him and his family. And now we'll take some questions.

Question: Any word on how the officer is doing, is he being identified yet as well?

Russo: Not identified, but he's in stable condition. 

Question: Has he made any talk or said anything back? 

Russo: No, he communicates with hand gestures. 

Question: Was he in uniform at the time?

Russo: He was not.

Question: You talked about the NYPD responding at the scene and helping get him out of there. How did all of that happen? Did the person who was with him call 911? How was he removed from there? 

Chief Joseph Kenny, Chief of Detectives, New York City Police Department: So, the person he was with called 911, but we also had an additional 911 call for a robbery that had taken place about five minutes previous. Very similar motive, two males on a scooter that forcibly removed a cell phone from a woman. So, the officers were responding to both 911 calls.

Question: So, the officers were in the area looking for those individuals?

Chief Kenny: They were on the way responding to the first 911 call, which was a robbery in progress.

Question: And these two individuals were being investigated at that time as well?

Chief Kenny: That's correct.

Question: Okay, one question, sorry, NYPD. Was the victim with a female, a 40-year-old woman?

Chief Kenny: The victim was with a female companion, yes. 

Question: How did this system fail so badly here? I mean, you have a Massachusetts warrant, deportation order, and multiple arrests here in New York City. And he felt comfortable enough to hang around after he had already robbed somebody because he didn't have to worry about if he was going to be let go again. And it took a federal agent shooting him to stop. How is our system working here at all?

Mayor Adams: Our goal is to get dangerous people off the streets. And we have done that with our federal partners. If you know of a number of the dangerous gang takedowns that we participated in, and whatever we need to do in our federal laws to ensure that dangerous people are not on our streets, federal authorities need to do that. 

Here in New York City, our laws are clear on what we can do and what we can't do. We will always coordinate with our partners going after dangerous individuals. We're not allowed to coordinate dealing with deportation, civil deportation only. But we have used the tools of our task force and our federal partners to remove dangerous people off the streets. 

Also, I want to add that I communicated with the border czar, and he's en route also to visit our officer. Thank you.

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