NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, victim of Park Avenue mass shooting, was a 'hard-working family man'
NEW YORK — Didarul Islam, the NYPD officer killed by a rampaging gunman in a mass shooting in a Park Avenue skyscraper, was a Bangladeshi immigrant who joined the force to leave behind a legacy his family could be proud of, mourners said Tuesday.
Islam, 36, a father of two with a baby on the way, was one of four people gunned down by Shane Tamura inside the Midtown high-rise Monday evening.
He 'always wanted to be a cop,' his brother-in-law, Jamil Rahman, told the Daily News Monday night. 'He was a hard-working family man,' Rahman said. 'Everybody is shocked and terribly saddened at the same time.'
Islam was working a second job as a security guard when Tamura stormed inside the building at 51st Street with an M-4 assault rifle about 6:30 p.m. and started firing.
Tamura killed three others and wounded a fourth person before getting lost in the building and taking his own life, officials said.
As part of a program with the department, Islam was wearing his NYPD uniform while working off-duty, officials said.
At the time of his death, he was assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx. Islam has been a police officer since 2021.
In his five year career, he racked up 26 felony arrests and 45 misdemeanor arrests, according to his NYPD record.
'It's a sad day for not only our members, but for the #NYPD and #NYC,' the NYPD Muslim Officer's Society said on Facebook. 'We lost one of the finest today to a senseless act of violence.'
Mayor Eric Adams called Islam a 'true blue New Yorker.'
On Tuesday, Adams ordered all the flags on city buildings to be lowered to half-staff in the officer's honor.
Islam was Tamura's first target, Tisch said. He died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
'He was doing the job that we asked him to do,' Tisch said. 'He put himself in harm's way. He made the ultimate sacrifice, shot in cold blood, wearing a uniform that stood for the promise that he made to this city. He died as he lived, a hero.'
Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said Islam lived in the Parkchester section of the Bronx with his wife, children and elderly parents.
'When he joined the police department, his mother asked him why he would pursue such a dangerous job. He told her it was to leave behind a legacy that his family could be proud of,' Mamdani said. 'He has done that, and more. I pray for him, his family, and honor the legacy of service and sacrifice he leaves behind.'
Islam's friend Marjanul Karim, 31, told The News, that he'd worked as a peace officer at middle schools but wanted to join the NYPD.
'He wanted to support his family and he fell in love with law enforcement. He was a selfless individual,' Karim said.
'This house he bought while providing for his elderly parents' in Bangladesh, Karim said. 'He was a stand up guy. It only made sense for someone like him to join the police force.'
'He told my mom, 'You have to die one way or another,'' Karim added. 'He died a hero.'
_________
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
25 minutes ago
- Fox News
South Carolina officer collapses from fentanyl exposure during routine traffic stop
Former NYPD narcotics officer Darrin Porcher reacts to the viral video of the officer reviving his partner and discusses the dangers of fentanyl.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
New details highlight harrowing minutes inside Manhattan office building as mass shooting unfolded
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence. During evening rush hour in New York City on Monday, a man calmly walked into a Park Avenue office building lobby and killed a police officer, then opened fire on other innocent strangers. Within a minute, the gunman had disappeared into a labyrinth of elevator banks and hallways, armed and loose somewhere in the 44-story building. The day's violence would become the deadliest mass shooting in New York City since 2000. The gunman shot and killed four people and wounded another, before killing himself, police said. From the moment the first panicked 911 calls were received, the New York Police Department unleashed a torrent of cops, specially trained units, heavy weapons, sophisticated technology and a swift information exchange among its 32,000 police officers and law enforcement partners across the country. As calls flooded in, the NYPD's electronic log system captured the horror happening in real time inside the Park Avenue skyscraper. The shorthand notes, obtained by CNN, show the desperation of frightened callers as operators attempted to piece together what was happening. 'INVESTIGATE/POSSIBLE CRIME: SHOTS FIRED/INSIDE\ACTIVE_SHOOTER,' read one note. 'ACTIVE SHOOTER IN THE BUILDING AND LOCKED SELF IN ROOM,' the log notes a female caller reported. Additional calls are logged: '7-8 SHOTS HEARD,' 'LOCATION IS NFL HEADQUARTERS,' 'SHOOTER IN BUILDING.' Another female caller reported her husband telling her he's in a locked room, according to the log. From precinct officers to specialized commands, swarms of law enforcement teams raced to the scene. The NYPD's Emergency Service Unit, which operates as a SWAT team, entered the building and began a systematic search for the gunman, who was somewhere inside. At the same time, officers from the Strategic Response Command, providing an additional long-weapons team, set up a perimeter and established a safe corridor known as a 'warm zone' to get medical personnel in and wounded victims out while the search for the gunman continued, law enforcement officials said. While those teams secured the area outside, detectives made their way into the skyscraper and examined surveillance video in the building's control center. They took a screengrab of the gunman, and using technology developed by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, blasted the image to NYPD officers' department-issued phones. Within minutes, every officer searching the building or holding the outside perimeter had a picture of a man taking large strides and carrying an assault rifle, the officials said. The gunman was identified after responding teams found his body on the building's 33rd floor: 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura of Las Vegas, Nevada. New details from law enforcement sources shed light on Tamura's travel to New York City, the gunman's movements inside the building and the police investigation. Here's what we've learned about the shooting at 345 Park Avenue: From Las Vegas to New York City Officers found Tamura's black Series 3 BMW double-parked in front of the Park Avenue building, and then used his name, vehicle registration and a disjointed suicide note found in his back pocket to pull together a timeline of Tamura's path to the carnage. On Saturday, July 26, two days before the shooting, a license plate reader in Loma, Colorado, recorded Tamura's car with Nevada license plates passing through at 1:06 p.m., according to a law enforcement official. On Sunday, Tamura did not show up for his surveillance job as part of the security team at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. He was miles away. Tamura's black BMW was spotted driving eastbound on Interstate 80 by a license plate reader (LPR) owned by the Nebraska State Patrol. Later, an LPR operated by the Scott County Sheriff's Office recorded the car on I-80 near Wolcott, Indiana. At 4:24 p.m. Monday, a camera attached to the New Jersey State Police's real-time crime center took a picture of his BMW, this time along I-80 in Columbia, New Jersey, nearly two hours before the rampage would begin. Tamura arrives at his intended target Two senior law enforcement officials who reviewed video from the Midtown Manhattan office building provided the following account of the gunman's movements on Monday: At 6:26 p.m., Tamura double-parked outside 345 Park Avenue. He got out of the car carrying the M4 semi-automatic rifle, crossed the sidewalk and then the broad plaza leading to the office building's entrance. One minute later, Tamura entered the building. Inside, Tamura turned to his right to face uniformed NYPD officer Didarul Islam and shot him, killing the 36-year-old father of two who was expecting his third child. As Islam fell, Craig Clementi, who works in the NFL's finance department, was also shot. Clementi called his coworkers to warn them that a gunman was in the lobby firing shots, and then called 911, according to one of the senior officials. Wesley LePatner, a 43-year-old Blackstone executive, was shot as she moved toward a pillar in the lobby, police said. LePatner died from her wounds. Tamura then shot Aland Etienne, a 46-year-old security guard. Wounded, Etienne crawled toward the console behind the security desk and collapsed. Tamura went to an elevator bank on the opposite side of the lobby to the elevators that go up to the NFL offices. Officials have said investigators believe Tamura was headed for the NFL offices at the time of the shooting, but took the wrong elevator. He ignored a woman exiting an elevator car, entered it and then pressed 33, the lowest available on its panel, according to one of the senior law enforcement officials. Once on the 33rd floor, Tamura faced glass walls with locked doors on either end of the hallway. These were the offices of Rudin Management, the company that runs the building. Tamura tried opening the doors, then opened fire on the glass and kicked through it to enter the floor, officials said. By then, it was likely he realized he wasn't at the NFL offices, according to the officials. Tamura saw an office cleaner, Sebije Nelovic, and opened fire but missed her, she said in a statement released by her union. Nelovic said she ran down the hallway and locked herself in a closet. She heard screams and more gunfire, she said, describing the gunman at one point shooting the door she was hiding behind. As shots rang out, frantic employees called 911 and barricaded themselves in offices and conference rooms. Their desperate calls reported how many shots they had heard, where they were hiding and where they believed the gunman was moving, according to a radio call log reviewed by CNN. Over the years, Rudin Management conducted active shooter drills and training for its employees. Their offices on the 33rd floor have bathrooms designed as safe rooms, in the event of an incident just like the one that unfolded Monday, the officials said. The rooms are outfitted with bullet-proof doors that lock with bolts from the inside, and their walls are lined with Kevlar. Each bathroom is equipped with a video feed showing the hallway outside and a dedicated telephone line. Julia Hyman, a 27-year-old Rudin Management employee who was working late, was in one of those very bathrooms designed as a safe room. It is not clear whether she had heard the shots or understood what was unfolding outside. She stepped outside the bathroom, and walked three or four steps, apparently unaware that the gunman was behind her. He fired, striking her in the back. Wounded, Hyman stumbled to her desk and died from her wounds, according to one of the officials who reviewed the video. By this time, it appeared Tamura realized there were no more accessible targets in the office, and, with police swarming the building, it was not likely he was going to find his way to the NFL, the official said. A few seconds after shooting Hyman, video is said to show Tamura stood next to a desk, held out his arms to aim the rifle at his own chest and used his thumb to pull the trigger, firing a single round, the official said. His body dropped to the floor, his rifle falling next to him. Tamura had fired most of two 30-round magazines of .223 ammunition in a matter of minutes, the official said. Throughout the night and into the morning, police collected evidence from where the victims lay and from the areas where shots were fired. In the building lobby, 23 shell casings and more than a dozen ricocheted bullet fragments were recovered, according to an NYPD official. In the 33rd floor offices of Rudin Management, investigators from the NYPD's Crime Scene Unit found another 24 shell casings from Tamura's M4 rifle, as well as 15 bullet fragments, the NYPD official said. Tracing the gun Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents on the scene received the rifle's serial number, and within minutes detectives learned the rifle had been purchased on August 29, 2024, by a Las Vegas man identified as 'Rick,' a coworker of Tamura's at the Horseshoe Casino, according to documents reviewed by CNN. 'Rick' has not responded to CNN's requests for comment. The NYPD Intelligence Bureau's SENTRY unit, which maintains a national network of law-enforcement contacts, then reached out to Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who sent detectives to interview 'Rick.' 'Rick' had also sold Tamura the black BMW he drove across the country, according to Nevada DMV records. Other Las Vegas sheriff's deputies were dispatched to Tamura's apartment to seal it while awaiting a search warrant. Another team went to interview Tamura's parents, who lived nearby. The Las Vegas Metro Police Crime Stoppers hotline received a call at 8:25 p.m. the night of the shooting. A licensed gun dealer had seen the picture of Tamura and remembered his face. In June, he had sold him a modified trigger for an M4 rifle. Tamura had also told the dealer that he planned to buy 500 rounds of .223 ammunition for the assault rifle, a law enforcement official told CNN. Back in New York, Tamura's BMW was cleared by the bomb squad. Detectives recovered 827 rounds for a stainless steel .357 magnum Colt Python revolver. According to the same official, the gun was fully loaded with another six rounds in the cylinder.
Chicago Tribune
4 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Clarence Page: President Donald Trump drives wedges into his own movement
Remember when then-candidate Donald Trump said during an Iowa campaign rally in 2016 that he 'could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters?' I quickly put that aside as just another example of the New Yorker's outlandish braggadocio, but like other political observers, I have since been impressed by Trump's seeming wall of invulnerability to scandal. However, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal boils up around our ears, I have begun to notice some cracks. The difference is apparent as new questions arise about Trump's relationship with Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019 while in jail awaiting trial on charges that he had sex-trafficked teenage girls. Instead of calming the waters, demands from skeptical corners of the public have led to more curiosity, particularly from Trump's most deeply committed 'Make America Great Again' base of supporters. The irony for Trump is the fervor of the conviction that Epstein's crimes are the rotten core of the U.S. political power structure. It's a belief that Trump and his surrogates promoted when they suggested that Epstein's political associates were Democrats. It was one of a rich array of conspiracy theories that Trump has used to whip up his populist movement. The MAGA faithful have clung to Trump throughout the many tribulations of his first term and interregnum: the impeachments, the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the stolen-documents investigation and the sexual assault lawsuit. But that steadfast support seems to be weakening. For example, recent polling from CBS News and YouGov found nearly 90% of Americans — including 83% of Republicans — think the Department of Justice should release all the information it has regarding the case against Epstein. That's the opposite of what Trump, already busy with trade talks, warfare in the Middle East and other challenges, wants to talk about now. After The Wall Street Journal report described a risque drawing that Trump was said to have sent to Epstein decades ago, Trump sued the paper, its owner and reporters. Add to that the Journal's report that Trump was informed that his name appeared in the Justice Department's investigation of Epstein, and it should be no surprise that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum have questions. You could even say that the Epstein scandal has led to one of the most unified moments in recent political history — unified, that is, against Trump's handling of the mess. The discontent shows up in the ranks of his own party, which has been a big source of strength. For example, a poll from Quinnipiac University found that only 40% of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of the release of the files on Epstein, while more than a third of them (36%) disapprove. Quite frankly, if I were advising Trump's campaign, a highly unlikely possibility, I would make a recommendation to which I am confident he would not listen: Stop talking so much. Sure, he can't seem to help himself. Anyone who has been in a press pool covering Trump will tell you that the man loves the sound of his own voice. But this time, Trump's critics in the media are not only coming from the center and left. Some of Trump's usually loyal supporters have been outraged by the possibility that Team Trump is holding out on them or outright misleading them. For example, many were disappointed after the Justice Department said Epstein did not leave behind a 'client list,' contradicting a narrative that has been a mainstay on the right's conspiracy theorists' circuit. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested in February that the list was on her desk, although she later explained, unconvincingly to many, that she was referring to the overall case file. Plus, she said DOJ staff were sifting through a 'truckload' of previously withheld evidence. But the Justice Department ultimately decided not to disclose any more material on the case. That has angered right-wing influencers and other commentators who had been encouraged by no less than the president himself. In July, influential Trumpistas such as Tucker Carlson, Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon were huffing and fuming over the lack of transparency, and some observers wondered whether anger over Epstein would divide the MAGA faithful. Well, I wouldn't bet on it. Democrats and others on the left still have a lot of work ahead to get their own acts — and activism — together. But when I see Trump scurrying around to put out fires in his own MAGA movement, I can't help but wonder how long he can reunite a movement that seems increasingly divided by the array of fears and paranoid notions of which he never seems to get enough.
