Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Indian-origin NYPD officer hailed hero for shooting gunman

Indian-origin NYPD officer hailed hero for shooting gunman

A 27-year-old Indian-origin 'super rookie' NYPD officer is being hailed as a hero after he shot a convicted felon who killed his colleague and seriously injured another while investigating a domestic-violence call in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City.

Sumit Sulan is still struggling to deal with Friday's deadly ambush and "his brain is stuck on the situation", his mother told the New York Post newspaper.


According to the police, 47-year-old career criminal Lawshawn McNeil on Friday ambushed the three policemen - Sulan, Jason Rivera, 22 and Wilbert Mora, 27, who visited the Harlem address to investigate a domestic-violence call.

McNeil opened fire and killed Rivera while critically injuring Mora.

Officer Sulan fired back at McNeil and wounded him during the shootings. McNeil, a convicted felon, is currently hospitalised in a critical condition.

Speaking to the Post, the Indian-origin NYPD officer's mother Dalvir Sulan, 60, said that her son is 'shaken' and cannot get what happened out of his head

"I'm proud. Everyone says he did good," she said.

"I feel bad for the other (officer). He died. We really feel bad. We're sorry. We're hurt. The other guy is critical and we're hurt," she said from her Queens home.

A law-enforcement source described Sulan as a 'super rookie', noting that he has been on the job since April and at Harlem's 32nd Precinct for only two months.

"He did a great job," Sulan's mother said of her son, who emigrated from India about 15 years ago.

The New York Daily News, citing a source, said that the call to the Harlem apartment appeared to be a routine run until things went sideways once the officers arrived.

The expectation, he explained, was the situation could be resolved without an arrest after a chat with accused McNeil.

The accused's mother never told the arriving officers that her son was armed, the report said, citing the source.

Flags across the five boroughs of New York City flew at half-staff on Saturday to honour Rivera, a son of Dominican immigrants who once wrote that he joined the NYPD to make a difference in "this chaotic city."

Rivera, who was killed after just 14 months on the job, is survived by his wife.

(PTI)

More For You

King Charles

King Charles, wearing a black armband to pay respects to the victims of Air India plane crash, attends the Trooping the Colour parade on his official birthday in London. (Photo: Reuters)

Air India crash: Victims remembered during King Charles's birthday parade

A MINUTE's silence for the victims of the Air India plane crash was observed on Saturday during the Trooping the Colour parade in London marking King Charles's official birthday. Some members of the royal family wore black armbands during the ceremony.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles, 76, had requested changes to the parade “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy”.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rochdale grooming case

They were all remanded in custody, except Bashir, who absconded before the trial began. (Photo: Greater Manchester Police)

Seven men convicted of raping 13-year-old girls in Rochdale grooming case

SEVEN men were convicted on Friday in the UK’s latest grooming trial, after a jury heard that two girl victims were forced to have sex “with multiple men on the same day, in filthy flats and on rancid mattresses”.

Jurors at the court in Manchester, northwest England, deliberated for three weeks before finding the seven men, all of whom are of South Asian descent, guilty of rape.

Keep ReadingShow less
karan-thakar

Karun Thakar is a leading textile collector with a lifelong focus on Asian and African textiles

Karun Collection

Karun Thakar Fund to support textile research with scholarships and grants

THE KARUN THAKAR FUND, established by textile collector Karun Thakar in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), supports the study of Asian and African textiles and dress through scholarships and project grants.

The fund offers one-time Scholarship Awards of up to £10,000 for university students worldwide focusing on any aspect of Asian or African textiles and dress. Undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students from any accredited university are eligible, provided their research or practice is clearly linked to these areas. The next round of Scholarship Award applications opens on 1 May 2025 and closes at 23:59 on July 15, 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less
Air India

A view shows the wreckage of the tail section of an Air India aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from airport in Ahmedabad. (Photo: Reuters)

Air India crash: Probe focuses on engine and flaps; safety checks ordered for 787 fleet

THE INVESTIGATION into the Air India crash that killed more than 240 people is focusing on the aircraft's engine, flaps, and landing gear.

The Indian aviation regulator has ordered safety checks on the airline’s entire Boeing 787 fleet, reported Reuters.

Keep ReadingShow less