NEW YORK (WPIX) – Slain New York Officer Jason Rivera’s legacy will live on through the birth of a child, his widow announced one year after he was fatally shot.
Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora, both of the New York Police Department, were fatally wounded on Jan. 21, 2022, by a gunman who ambushed them as they responded to a domestic dispute in Manhattan. They were both memorialized on Saturday.
During the service, Rivera’s widow, Dominique Luzuriaga Rivera, said she is pregnant with her slain husband’s child.
“And one of the things I am also learning is that God works in mysterious ways. Through sorrow and pain, there can also be a rebirth,” she said. “I am blessed to say that Jason and I will be expecting our miracle this spring. Although Jason won’t be here in physical form to see and experience our miracle, I know he will always be here in spirit, watching, protecting and loving us.”
The couple got married just months before Rivera was killed, WPIX previously reported. They met as children and got together as teens.
The mother-to-be vowed on Saturday to remember River’s sacrifice and his legacy of service. The news of her pregnancy “lifted” the hearts of other officers, the Police Benevolent Association tweeted.
“Rest assured: we will care for our brother’s child as if it were our own,” PBA tweeted.
While Rivera didn’t share details about her pregnancy, she is not the first widow of an NYPD officer to become pregnant with a child after her husband’s death.
Another NYPD widow, Pei Xia Liu, asked doctors to preserve her late husband’s sperm after he was shot and killed in 2014. About two years after her husband’s death, Pei Xia Liu prepped for in vitro fertilization. Angelina Liu was born on July 25, 2017, and had often been called the NYPD’s “miracle baby” in the years since.