Police secure the scene where two NYPD officers were shot in Harlem in New York on Friday. AP

A New York police officer was killed and another critically wounded on Friday night answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son, officials said, making four officers shot in the city in as many days.

Just three weeks into their jobs, Mayor Eric Adams — a former police captain himself — and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell stood before the media at a Harlem hospital, denouncing the spate of violence against the New York Police Department.

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"Countless officers lined this hallway after carrying him in and grieve for their brother while praying with everything they have for the other” officer, Sewell said. "I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. We’re mourning, and we’re angry.”

Adams said, "This was just not an attack on these brave officers. This was an attack on the city of New York.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference at a Harlem hospital in New York on Friday. AP

Adams called for federal authorities to do more to round up stolen guns like the one used in Friday’s shooting inside a Harlem apartment.

"There are no gun manufacturers in New York City," he said. "We don’t make guns here. How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they still find their way into New York City, in the hands of people who killers?”

Authorities said the officers, along with a third officer, went to the apartment on 135th Street after a call came in from a woman needing help with her son, identified by police as Lashawn J. McNeil, 47.

Authorities said the officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon. Then two of them walked from the front of the apartment down a narrow hallway.

NYPD and FBI officers investigate the scene after two police officers were shot in Harlem in New York City. AFP

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said McNeil swung open a bedroom door and opened fire at the officers, striking them.

The officer who was killed was identified as 22-year-old Jason Rivera, and the wounded officer as Wilbert Mora, 27.

As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer who’d stayed with McNeil’s mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, Essig said.

McNeil is alive and hospitalized in critical condition, NYPD spokesperson Lt. John Grimpel said, correcting earlier reports that he had been killed.

McNeil's last known address is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about 90 miles (145 kilometres) west of New York City.

McNeil was on probation for a 2003 drug conviction in New York City. He also had several out of state arrests.