NY officials honour ‘hero cop’ Didarul in Manhattan shooting
A gunman killed four people, including a policeman of Bangladeshi origin, after storming a skyscraper in central Manhattan of New York today.
Didarul Islam, 36, from Moulvibazar in Bangladesh, was shot dead while providing security for the site on Park Avenue.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Officials said he had migrated to the US from Bangladesh, had two children and his wife was expecting a third. He died "a hero", they said.
Police identified the shooter as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident with a history of mental illness struggles, who ended the Monday evening (US time) massacre by shooting himself in the chest on the 33rd floor of a Park Avenue office tower.
Police Officer Didarul Islam represented the very best of our department.
He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today.
We join in prayer during this time of incomprehensible pain. We will forever honor his legacy.#FidelisAdMortem pic.twitter.com/vkBZetsz2N
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 29, 2025
Tamura is believed to have shot Didarul dead first as he entered the skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue.
He went on to attack others, ascending to the building's 33rd floor before turning his gun on himself.
Tamura killed New York Police Department officer, Didarul Islam, who came from Bangladesh and had been on the force three years, New York Mayor Eric Adams said.
Paying tribute to the late officer, Adams said he was "doing what he does best... saving lives. He was protecting New Yorkers."
At a press conference, Adams said the late officer was "a true-blue New Yorker, not only in a uniform he wore but in his spirit and energy of loving this city".
The mayor said he had met Islam's family after the attack, and had expressed his admiration for the late officer.
"This was his dad's only son," the mayor reflected. "I think about Jordan, my child, and it is unimaginable to experience a loss of this magnitude."
A post on the New York Police Department (NYPD) account on X said Islam "represented the very best of our department", and said "he was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today".
At a press conference on Monday, the city's Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the late officer served in the NYPD's 47th District, in the Bronx.
She said: "He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm's way. He made the ultimate sacrifice." Tisch continued: "He died as he lived - a hero."
Members of Islam's Bangladeshi community in the Bronx spent Monday evening visiting the late officer's home, which he shared with his family and parents, the New York Times reported.
They described to the newspaper how Islam had migrated to the US and provided security for a school before becoming a policeman. They said their friend had been an active member of his mosque who had mentored young men in the area.
In Moulvibazar's Kulaura upazila in Bangladesh, relatives gathered to mourn his loss at his family home in the Magura residential area after hearing the news.
The suspect, Tamura, who killed four people in a rampage with a rifle through a Midtown Manhattan office building, was carrying a note that appeared to blame the National Football League for his degenerative brain disease, Mayor Adams said.
The NFL has its headquarters in the skyscraper, but Tamura apparently entered the wrong elevator bank and ended up in the offices of Rudin Management, a real estate company, where he shot employees, the mayor said.
Authorities offered few details about the three other victims besides the police officer – two men and a woman. A third man was gravely wounded by the gunfire and was "fighting for his life" in a nearby hospital, the mayor said.
Comments