Officials and multiple communities continue to mourn and offer prayers and support for the families of the four people shot dead by 27-year-old former football player Shane Tamura on Monday night inside a Manhattan skyscraper.
Police say Tamura, who died by suicide, also took the lives of Wesley LePatner, 43; Didarul Islam, 36; Aland Etienne, 46; and Julia Hyman.
Islam was a member of the New York City Police Department, who left behind a pregnant wife and two sons, according to an online fundraising campaign seeking to raise $500,000 to help his family. The campaign has raised more than $181,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
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“Didarul Islam was more than a Police Officer — he was a devoted father to two young boys, a beloved son, a caring husband, and a big brother not only to his sisters but to countless cousins, both here and in Bangladesh,” the campaign states. “He was known for his soft-spoken nature, boundless kindness, and unwavering willingness to help anyone in need. He always showed up — without hesitation, without question.”
New York Police Department Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday night that Tamura, a former high school football player from California, drove from Las Vegas, Nevada, to carry out the shooting at 345 Park Avenue. The building is blocks away from Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Investigators said Tamura double-parked his BMW just outside the building on Monday evening, then walked inside with an AR-15-style rifle and sprayed the lobby with gunfire. He reportedly looked behind a security desk to shoot one of his victims and fired at another who tried to take cover behind a pillar, The New York Times reported.
He then went to the elevator bank, where he allowed a woman to safely exit an elevator car, which took him to the 33rd floor. Once there, he went to the office of the real estate firm Rudin Management, where he shot someone and killed himself.
Tisch said multiple 911 calls came in about a shooter inside the building at around 6:28 p.m.
Hyman was an associate at Rudin Management. The company did not identify her by name but confirmed in a statement cited by NBC News that they lost one of their employees in the mass shooting.
“The Rudin family and everyone at our company are devastated by yesterday’s senseless tragedy,” the company said Tuesday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those injured and lost last night, including our cherished Rudin colleague, a brave New York City police officer, a beloved lobby security guard and an employee at a tenant firm.”
LePatner was a senior managing director and member of Blackstone Real Estate’s investment committee, according to the company’s website. She leaves behind a husband, Evan LePatner, a teenage daughter and a son in the seventh grade at a Jewish day school in Manhattan, according to The New York Times.
“She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable. To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague,” a statement from LePatner’s family shared with media reads. “At this unbearably painful time, we are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled, yet we will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created.”
Etienne was remembered by the 32BJ Service Employees International Union as “a dedicated security officer who took his job duties extremely seriously.”
“We are devastated to hear the reports of the shooting at 345 Park Avenue. We extend our deep condolences to the families and friends who lost loved ones, including that of our own 32BJ SEIU security member Aland Etienne, a dedicated security officer who took his job duties extremely seriously,” 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich said in a statement.
“We are working with building management and the NYPD to support their investigation and ensuring our members in the building receive the free union counseling and support services they deserve and need to manage this unspeakable loss.”
Speaking at an interfaith prayer vigil in New York City’s Bryant Park on Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, pushed for gun-control measures as she shared in the grief of the families of the victims.
“They say that grief is the price you pay for love. What does that mean? It means there were four individuals who just a little more than 24 hours ago walked this earth. They were so well loved by their parents, a husband, a wife, their children, their coworkers, that the pain is so searing right now. It seems unending,” she said.
“As I called a young husband who told me with such great pride about his wife and her career and how she was raising their 12-year-old and 14-year-old, I didn’t know what to say. I said, I’ve been married to a man I cherish. I’m a wife, I’m a mom. I don’t know what to say to you to lift this pain off your heart. But I want you to know that we love you as a city and as a State we love you,” she continued.
“We are also traumatized by what you’ve had to go through, all of them. As I spoke to the young widow, an expectant mother of two, expecting her third child, I spoke to her … and I just try to convey again that sense of compassion that all of us as human beings feel.
“I said, ‘Is there anything we can do for you?’ And in her broken English, she just said, ‘Pray for us.'”
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