Slain NYPD officer Wilbert Mora's wake held at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Murdered NYPD Wilbert Mora will be given a hero's farewell at his wake at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday.

Mora and fellow officer Jason Rivera were gunned down in an ambush on a domestic violence call at a West 135th Street apartment in Harlem on Friday.

His wake comes just days after a sea of blue attended the funeral of his 22-year-old partner, Rivera, on Friday. Mora's funeral will be held at the church on Wednesday morning.

"Officer Mora's death was a great loss to East Harlem. He was a very beautiful gentleman," Benjamin Garcia, an early attendee at the wake, told The New York Post.

Thousands were expected to attend the 27-year-old officer's wake at the historic Manhattan church, with attendees including city leaders, first responders and members of the public.

A motorcade on Tuesday morning to the cathedral accompanied NYPD officers carrying Mora's flag-draped casket.

Mora was critically injured at the scene and remained on life support for days. The donation of his heart, liver, two kidneys and pancreas will save five other lives.

Mora was the youngest of three siblings in a close-knit Dominican family that settled in Brooklyn and then East Harlem after emigrating to the United States.

"He was a gentle giant," Mora's high school friend Rashad Mujumder told Pix 11. "The biggest person in the room with the softest heart."

The late officer went to LaGuardia Community College and transferred to John Jay College to study criminal justice. Mora was in his fourth year on the job.

Retired NYPD detective Angel Maysonet posted on Instagram saying that Mora was a "big teddy bear. Kind. Life of the party. Took care of his parents who are lost and devastated without him."

He wasn't married nor did he have any children.