Slain NYPD Det. Didarul Islam, killed in Manhattan mass shooting, remembered as 'humble, steady, reliable' at Bronx funeral

Didarul Islam, the NYPD officer who was among four people fatally shot at a midtown Manhattan office tower, was remembered at his funeral Thursday as a calm and steady presence in the Bronx precinct where he worked and as a man dedicated to his family here and abroad.

Thousands of police officers, including from Nassau and Suffolk, attended the service at the Parkchester Jame Masjid mosque on Virginia Avenue in the Bronx. There, rites for Islam — the Muslim father of two sons, ages 5 and 7, whose widow is pregnant with their third son — were inflected with Arabic prayer and words from the Quran.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, wearing a black head covering and beginning her remarks with the Arabic phrase "As-salamu alaykum," which means "peace be upon you," posthumously promoted Islam to detective first-grade, which was met by applause in the packed mosque. The promotion, typical in deaths declared to have been in the line of duty, increases the benefits his family will receive.

Islam, 36, a police officer for nearly four years assigned to the 47th Precinct in the northern Bronx, came to New York City from his native Bangladesh when he was 20 years old, Tisch said. 

"He joined the NYPD first as a school safety agent in 2019 and a became a police officer two years later," Tisch said. "In his own words, the police were a blanket for the community, there to provide comfort and care. And when he joined this department, he made that his personal responsibility. But it was the man beneath the shield, steady in spirit, generous in presence, that left a deeper imprint."

On the job, he often talked about his wife and sons. He bonded with his partner, a Dominican Republic native, which Tisch noted was a uniquely New York City story of people from different continents becoming family. 

Last Sunday, she said, he worked "more than a full tour" at the Dominican Day Parade, and he was killed while moonlighting a security shift "to bring home just a little more" as the breadwinner for his family, including those in Bangladesh. 

"That's who he was; he didn't look for an easier way," Tisch said. "He just showed up and did the work. There's a quiet dignity to that. Everything for him was about being there for his family, for his mosque, for his adopted city and for his relatives back in Bangladesh. They were all in his care and he found peace in watching them grow."

"Didarul came to this country with that purpose already alive in him — a sense of duty shaped by the belief that real meaning is found in not what we take from the world, but in what we give back," the commissioner said.

"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 in something handed down, but something built with your own hands."

NYPD Deputy Insp. Muhammad J. Ashraf, the commanding officer of the precinct where Islam worked, said Islam was like many immigrants who come to New York City "with the belief that through hard work, our dreams could be achieved."

"He wore the NYPD shield, not just as a job, but as a calling," Ashraf said. "He knew what it meant to protect a place that gave him a new beginning and in return, he gave everything back — fully, faithfully and without any hesitation."

"One of his fellow officers described him as someone that brought calmness to any chaotic scene, someone that showed up with a smile on his face," Ashraf said. "He was humble, steady and reliable. He was the kind of officer you wanted by your side, calm in crisis, respectful to his peers and community and deeply committed to the mission."

Ashraf said he spoke to Islam a few days before he was killed, when he told Islam "how impressed I was at his work ethic" that was evident in recent arrests he had made and that advancement opportunities  would open for him.

"He confidently pushed his prior experience in school safety and how great he was interacting with youth," Ashraf said. "He was the best of us."

Islam's wife, Jamila Akhter, weeks away from giving birth to their third son, spoke in words read by a relative.

"To our family, he was our world. To the city, he was a proud NYPD officer who served with compassion and integrity," Akhter said. "He lived to help others and he gave his life protecting them. Though my heart is broken, I find comfort knowing that his sacrifice may have saved others in that lobby, people who were able to go home to their families that day."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was angry that Islam and the other victims were killed and said: "I’m not here as the mayor, I’m here as a parent. I’m here as a father."

He added: "There is nothing more tragic than having a parent bury their child. The pain is so immense, so intense. ... I want to say sorry to this family. I want to say sorry from one parent to another parent."

NYPD Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry told Islam's family the police community would always be there to support them.

"Didarul Islam was a great cop, a great family man and just a great human being," Hendry said. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, wearing a black head covering, implored Islam’s family and the greater community to lean on their fellow citizenry as they grieve.

"I know there’s a great pain in the Bangladeshi community as well," Hochul said. "Lean on all of us. Lean on all of your brothers in the New York family because we’re here to lift you up."

Imam Zakir Ahmed, of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, in rousing words that ignited the crowd to call out in response, said 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 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, loved less fully," Ahmed said. 

"To our city, our nation, you cannot ask us to serve and then silence us, you cannot take our sacrifice and ignore our suffering. Officer Islam gave his life for New York, now it’s time for New York and America to give back, to see us to hear us, to protect our dignity, the way officer Islam protected yours."

Ahmed also reminded the mourners of the ongoing suffering in Gaza and Sudan.

"Today, as we bury Officer Islam, thousands of civilians in Gaza, Palestine, are also being buried, not because of disease, not because of natural disaster, but because of bombs, blockades and a calculated starvation campaign," Ahmed said. "Entire families have been knocked out. Children are being starved to death as we speak."

Speaking directly to the elected officials and office seekers present, including Hochul, Adams, Attorney General Letitia James, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral nominee, and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is also running for mayor, Ahmed said: "Do not just stand for Officer Islam in death, stand with his people in life. Protect the vulnerable, denounce hate, work for peace, demand an end to genocide and a commitment to dignity for all people."

After the service ended, Islam's white coffin, wrapped in a blue, white and green NYPD flag, was wheeled from the mosque to the hearse under steady rain. Officers who gathered on the street came to attention and there was silence.

Four police helicopters flew low and "America the Beautiful" was played. At 2:22 p.m., the hearse departed at the pace of a slow march, passed under a massive American flag hung at the end of the block near a subway line and headed to the New Jersey cemetery where he was buried.

Emergency services officers with long guns patrolled and were posted on high building roofs on White Plains Road, scanning the crowd with binoculars.

The PBA had parked a truck with electronic display screens around the corner from the mosque, showing rotating images of Islam: in civilian clothes hugging his boys, balancing his oversize officer's cap on his young son's head, beaming in full uniform.

"In loving memory of our brother Police Officer Didarul Islam," read the accompanying text.

At the gates to the mosque were displayed two poster-size photos of Islam with Monday’s date listed as "EOW," meaning "end of watch."

Islam was fatally shot by 27-year-old Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, who entered the lobby of 345 Park Ave., which houses the headquarters of the National Football League, brandishing an AR-15-style rifle, police said. 

In the lobby, he first fatally wounded Islam, who was off-duty working as a building security guard; Aland Etienne, a building security guard; and Wesley LePatner, an executive at the global investment management firm Blackstone Inc., which also has an office in the building.

Julia Hyman, who worked for the real estate company that owned the building, was shot upstairs. Tamura killed himself.

Tamura left a suicide note saying he believed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, and blamed the NFL.