The NYPD officer shot and killed by a deranged gunman inside a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper Monday was identified as a “hero” dad and nearly four-year department veteran – whose wife is about to give birth to their third child, officials and sources said.
Married father-of-two Didarul Islam, 36, was remembered as a dedicated family man who loved putting on the uniform after he was senselessly murdered by 27-year-old Shane Tamura inside 345 Park Avenue, heartbroken city leaders said during a press conference.
“He was doing what he does best and all members of the police department carry out, he was saving lives,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a late Monday press conference.
“He was protecting New Yorkers. He’s an immigrant from Bangladesh, and he loved this city, and everyone we spoke with stated he was a person of faith and a person that believed in God and believed in living out the life of a godly person.”
Islam’s wife was eight-months pregnant and the couple had two young boys, according to officials and sources.
Islam had been on the force since December 2021 and worked out of the 47th precinct in the Bronx.
He was off-duty Monday working as security for Rudin Management Company in the building, but was in NYPD uniform, sources said.
Here is the latest on the NYC mass shooting:
An emotional New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Islam “made the ultimate sacrifice” and “died as he lived: a hero.”
“He was doing the job that we asked him to do. 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 the city, he died as he lived: a hero,” she said.
“I want to extend my profound sympathies to all of the victims and their families and to the brave NYPD cops who today lost a brother,” she continued.
NYC Midtown shooting timeline
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Avenue started coming in at around 6:28 p.m.
- The shooter, Shane Tamura, 27, was seen on surveillance footage getting out of a double parked black BMW between 51st and 52nd Street, with an M4 rifle.
- He then walks towards the skyscraper, enters the lobby and turns right, where he shot police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura then gunned down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, as he sprayed more bullets and walked toward the elevator bank — where he shot dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reported being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allowed a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed, before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One man was shot and killed on that floor.
- “He then proceeds down a hallway and shoots himself in the chest,” ending his rampage.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
Three other civilians were fatally shot in the bloodbath and one more was injured. The surviving victim is in critical but stable condition, authorities said.
Tamura barricaded himself inside the skyscraper and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the 33rd floor, sources said.
He traveled from nearly across the country before reaching the city and strolling up to the building with a rifle, Tisch said.
PBA President Patrick Hendry called the deadly shooting a “devastating” night for the city and police department.
“He was a hardworking police officer who was proud we know from hearing from his family to put on that uniform and shield of a New York City police officer, Hendry said.
“Every day, he went out and did his job, and he went out every single day to provide for his family, whether it was overtime or whatever he had to do to provide for this family.”
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