Det. Islam honored a year after Midtown mass shooting

A family-oriented NYPD officer shot to death along with three others during a Midtown rampage while working an off-duty security shift was honored by both his families on Tuesday, one year after his death.

Det. Didarul Islam‘s NYPD family, wife and relatives gathered Tuesday at the Bronx precinct where he worked to commemorate his life, which was cut short when a gunman stormed a Park Avenue building and opened fire on him and three other office building workers.

Islam, 36, a father of two with a baby on the way, was off duty but had been working a security detail, as he often did, to pick up some extra cash, police and relatives said.

“During this difficult year this family has been surrounded by so many people with love and support,” said Kamrul Hasan, the slain officer’s brother-in-law, who is also an NYPD officer.

“I often wish I could go back in time just once to say goodbye to my brother,” Hassan said. “For the past year, every gathering has felt incomplete.”

Hasan talked about Islam’s son, who was born after he died.

“Nothing can replace that loss,” Hasan said outside the 46th Precinct, where relatives and police officials laid a wreath in Islam’s honor. “I understand as a father how important is to have a father at every stage of life.”

Islam, a Bangladeshi immigrant and a five-year NYPD veteran, was moonlighting on a private security detail at 345 Park Avenue on July 28, 2925 when a gunman opened fire inside the building’s lobby, killing Islam and three others before taking his own life, according to police.

Cops said the gunman, Shane Tamura, 27, a man with documented mental health problems, traveled from Las Vegas with the intention of targeting the NFL headquarters. But he took the wrong elevator.

The other victims were identified as Blackstone employee Wesley LePatner, security officer Aland Etienne and Rudin Management employee Julia Hyman.

Mayor Mamdani said Islam’s death in particular resonated across New York City and beyond.

“It was technically his day off after a long demanding week as an officer for the NYPD,” Mamdani said. “For Detective Islam, taking on extra work to protect his fellow New Yorkers was not a burden. It was a way of life.”

Mamdani said Islam used the extra money he earned to support his family at home and abroad and to help expenses at his local masjid, where he sometimes prayed five times in a day.

“That was the kind of man Detective Islam was, steady, generous, humble. Kind, compassionate and hard working,” the mayor said. “Detective Islam died as he lived, in the service and protection of others.”

While many across the city focused on how Islam died, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch encouraged New Yorkers to remember how he lived.

Didarul was someone whose fellow officers knew they could rely on,” Tisch said.”He took his responsibilities seriously and gave the assignment in front of him his full attention. In a profession where trust is built over long tours and tested without warning, that kind of dependability means everything.”