An NYPD officer was among four people shot and killed Monday evening by a Nevada man with a history of mental health issues who burst into an exclusive Park Avenue office building and began spraying bullets from an assault rifle, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The shooter, identified as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident, fatally shot himself in the chest after taking an elevator to the building's 33rd floor, Tisch said.
The officer, Didarul Islam, 36, joined the NYPD in December 2021 and was assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx. He was on paid detail doing security work at the building when Tamura stormed into the building, started shooting and hit Islam in the back. Islam was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where he was pronounced dead.
“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 this city,” Tisch said as she and the mayor addressed the media shortly before 10:30 p.m. at NewYork-Presbyterian. Islam's wife is pregnant with the couple’s third child, she said.
A man and two women were also killed and one man was in critical but stable condition, Adams said. Officials did not identify the three others killed pending notification of their families. A fifth person, a man, was in critical but stable condition at NewYork-Presbyterian, Tisch said. Four persons were treated for minor injuries.
“Our hearts are heavy,” a somber and visibly shaken Adams said at the hospital. “He was doing what he does best and all members of the police department carry out,” the mayor said of Islam.
Adams had earlier met Islam’s family. “No words can describe this act of evil,” he said. “And no words can fill the void that has been left by this tragedy.”
The commissioner said multiple calls were received by the 911 call center starting at 6:28 p.m. reporting an active shooter at the 345 Park Ave. office building, which is between 51st and 52nd streets. The building houses offices for the real estate and development company Rudin Management, the National Football League, the accounting giant KPMG and the investment company Blackstone.
Tisch said surveillance footage shows Tamura double parking his black BMW on Park Avenue in front of the building and exiting carrying an M4 carbine, a weapon used by the U.S. military. The footage then shows him entering the building’s lobby, turning right and immediately opening fire, hitting an NYPD officer, presumably Islam.
Tamura then shot a security guard and another man before calling an elevator. He let a woman exiting the elevator walk past him before he rode to the 33rd floor, which houses Rudin Management offices. He walked the floor there, before shooting and killing a woman there. He then turned the rifle on himself.
Law enforcement officials found identification on Tamura’s body, including a concealed carry permit from Las Vegas, Tisch said, adding that police were investigating possible motives for the deadly violence.
Inside the BMW, officers found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition, cartridge magazines, a backpack and meds prescribed to Tamura, Tisch said.
She said Tamura had apparently driven cross-country. His car was spotted going through Colorado on July 26, Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday, and New Jersey Monday.
“This is a a devastating night for our city, for our police department,” the president of the Police Benevolent Association, Patrick Hendry, said at NewYork Presbyterian. “Pure evil came to the heart of our city and struck innocent people. And one of our police officers who were protecting those people. We lost four people tonight. And our hero brother who gave his life for this city.”
Hendry said Islam was a “hard-working” and “proud” officer. He said that the NYPD would work to find answers to the tragedy. “But now our job as police officers is to be there for this family, to support them in any way that we can, to come together as a city, to be there for these families of the victims,” Hendry said.