NYPD ‘super rookie’ awarded Medal of Honor for gunning down career criminal cop killer

The NYPD honored some of New York’s Finest at an awards ceremony Tuesday – including a Medal of Honor for the onetime “super rookie” who gunned down a career criminal who killed two other cops.

Sumit Sulan, who has since been promoted to detective, received a rousing standing ovation as NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban placed the medal around his neck for stopping cop killer Lashawn McNeil dead in his tracks during a domestic dispute call in Harlem on Jan. 21, 2022.

McNeil, 47, was shot just moments after killing hero cops Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera.

“With Officers Mora and Rivera struck by gunfire, and the perpetrator continuing to advance to commit further violence, Officer Sulan discharged his firearm twice, striking and gravely wounding the perpetrator, preventing further incident,” Caban said at the ceremony at the NYPD Police Academy.

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“Officer Sulan transmitted a ‘shots fired’ call over the radio to alert responding officers,” the commissioner said. “Officers Mora and Rivera were rushed to Harlem Hospital where they succumbed to their injuries as a result of the perpetrator’s actions.”

Rivera, 22 , and Mora, 27 , were honored as heroes at massive funerals at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Sulan was not the only hero in blue honored at Tuesday’s medal ceremony.

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A Purple Shield was posthumously awarded to school crossing guard Krystyna Naprawa , 63, who was fatally struck by a dump truck on Oct. 20, 2023, while she was helping people cross at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue in Queens.

A Medal of Honor was posthumously awarded to Detective Third Grade Troy Patterson from the 60th Precinct, who spent 33 years in a coma. Patterson was shot on January 16, 1990, while off-duty.

He was washing his car with a garden hose attached to a fire hydrant when he was approached by three people who tried to rob him at gunpoint. Patterson succumbed to his injuries on April 29, 2023.

Other NYPD families collected Distinguished Service Medals on behalf of their loved ones who died as a result of illnesses contracted in the line of duty in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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Others were posthumously honored for their bravery in the line of duty.

“We know what it is to respond to calls of service,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, said during the ceremony. “We know what it is to put your life on the line every day.

“Our flag is still here because of the work that we do,” he said. “We need to remind ourselves constantly, this is the greatest country on the globe and this is the greatest city on the globe, New York City.”

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