Thousands gathered to say farewell to the New York City Police Department officer who was killed in Monday’s mass shooting in Midtown.
The funeral for 36-year-old Didarul Islam took place at the Parkchester Jame Masjid, located on a residential street in the officer’s neighborhood in the Bronx, three days after he was killed in the deadliest shooting in the city in a quarter-century, The New York Times noted.
The gunman entered the office building at 345 Park Avenue with an assault style-rifle and started to discharge the weapon. He killed Islam and two others before heading to the 33rd floor, where he killed a fourth person, before he died by suicide.
Police say the shooter, Shane Tamura, 27, had made his way to New York from his Nevada home, where he was set on targeting the headquarters of the National Football League.
Hundreds of officers from as many as 54 of the 77 precincts in the city, as well as from states and counties in the surrounding area, attended the funeral.
The streets around the mosque were empty of cars for the proceedings, with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch saying that “Didarul Islam came to this country as an immigrant with no guarantees, only the hope that hard work, that humility, and that purpose might lead him somewhere meaningful. And it did.”
The rituals went on for close to four hours, with separate viewings for men and women. Floral wreaths covered the room, with the casket covered with the Police Department’s standard in green, white, and blue.
Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former NYPD officer, spoke at the funeral while the winner of the Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani, sat with the family, The NYT noted.
Islam came to New York City from Bangladesh when he was 20 years old, living in a small house along with his parents, his young sons, and his pregnant wife.
In a eulogy read on his wife’s behalf, she wrote that Islam had “lived to help others” and that “He gave his life protecting them. Though my heart is broken, I find comfort knowing that his sacrifice might have saved others.”
Islam, who served in the department for three and a half years, joined the agency after spending two years as a safety agent in city schools. Even as an officer, he spent his time off as a security guard.
Islam worked the Dominican Day Parade in the Bronx on Sunday before picking up an additional shift on Monday at 345 Park Avenue.
“He stepped into a new land and chose to become part of its promise, to believe in its dream. And he did believe in the American dream, not as something handed down but as something built with your own hands,” said Tisch. “He may not be here to see that dream fulfilled, but his sons will surely grow up with its foundation beneath their feet.”
Friends and colleagues said Islam was a devoted Muslim. Imam Dr. Zakir Ahmed of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York said during remarks that Islam, “lived at a time when people like him are too often feared, vilified and made to feel like outsiders.”
“We cannot honor Officer Islam today while ignoring the daily pain endured by his community — being told to go back where you came from, being watched more closely, judged more harshly and loved less fully,” Imam Ahmed added, according to The NYT.
“To our city, our nation, you cannot ask us to serve and then silence us,” he said.
“You cannot take our sacrifice and ignore our suffering.”
