Officer Jason Rivera's family members are preparing to lay him to rest on Friday, one week after he was fatally shot in Harlem while responding to a family dispute.

Francis Rosario, Rivera’s cousin, is hoping the city's collective grief creates a sense of purpose to combat gun violence in the five boroughs.

“I don't need to know if you’re Republican, Democratic, whatever affiliation you have, that’s not what we need,” said Rosario, who called on Mayor Eric Adams to bring the city together. “We need human beings to try and work together, to coexist together as a human being. We don't want rhetoric, we want reality. We don't want problems, we want solutions.”

Rosario said, stepping back from his personal pain, the reality of what happened is frustrating.

“It seems the good die young, before they see the fruit of their principle labors. They do things for others. My family, we have always believed in serving in the world with principle, respect, courage and honor,” Rosario said. “Now how can we solve that problem? That anger, that feeling? We have to pray to God in order to surrender ourselves to him, in order to to help out, to alleviate this situation we are suffering right now.”

Rosario described his cousin as a “very friendly” person, someone whose attention to morals and values were unique for someone so young. Rivera was just 22 years old.

Rivera’s death has been incredibly difficult for his family, Rosario added. 

“His mother say to me last night, ‘Francisco, how I can feel from the emptiness I have in my heart right now, because my boy is gone I’m never going to see him again,’” Rosario said.

Rosario told NY1 he hopes that changes will be made so that his cousin's work as a police officer will not be in vain. 

“Jason, his legacy is acting as a few principled man,” Rivera said, adding, “Conciliation, respect, serve, and to protect others, to try to coexist in the same city, in the same society, in the same place.”