Top finance executive, 'hero' officer among four killed in NYC shooting
- Published
A police officer with a baby on the way, a devoted father of two school-aged children, a top finance executive, and an associate working late at her real estate office are the victims of the shooting attack at a building in a busy district of New York City.
Suspected lone gunman Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old from Nevada, also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
He had a "documented mental health history", and his potential motive is unknown.
Here's what we know about the victims.
Didarul Islam
Didarul Islam, 36, was shot dead on Monday while providing security for the site on Park Avenue. Officials said he had migrated to the US from Bangladesh, had two children and was expecting a third with his pregnant wife. He died "a hero", they said.
Paying tribute to the late officer, New York Mayor Eric Adams said he was "doing what he does best...saving lives. He was protecting New Yorkers".
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".
In a news conference on Monday, police commissioner Jessica Tisch 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."
Mayor Adams said he had met Islam's family after the attack, and expressed his admiration for the late officer, who had served in his job for more than three years.
"This was his dad's only son," the mayor said. "I think about Jordan, my child, and it is unimaginable to experience a loss of this magnitude."
Watch: 'We are broken' - Family mourns officer killed in NYC shooting
Wesley LePatner
Wesley LePatner was a senior executive at investment giant Blackstone.
"She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond. She embodied the best of Blackstone," the company said. "Words cannot express the devastation we feel."
LePatner began at Blackstone in 2014 after previously working at Goldman Sachs in the real estate investment group, according to the company website. She was a Yale University alum, having received a BA in history there in 2003.
She served on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the UJA-Federation of New York, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and the Yale University Library Council, according to her biography.
She left behind two children, including a seventh grader at the school, a statement from the Heschel School said.
"She was a uniquely brilliant and modest leader and parent, filled with wisdom, empathy, vision, and appreciation," the statement read. "Quite simply, Wesley made the world - and all of the institutions that she touched, including the Heschel School - a better place. We are all diminished today by her absence."
Watch: NYPD say officer killed in the line of duty was a ‘hero’
Aland Etienne
Aland Etienne, 46, was working for McLane Security Inc as an unarmed security guard, CBS, BBC's partner in the US, reported.
Etienne, 46, whose family is from Haiti, was working in the building at 345 Park Avenue where the gunman fatally shot him.
"Aland, lost his life in the shooting that happened in New York while he was at work. He was more than a brother - he was a father, a son, and a light in our lives," his brother Gathmand Etienne wrote in a post on Facebook.
"Rest in peace, Brother. You'll never be forgotten."
Julia Hyman
Julia Hyman, 27, worked at Rudin Management, a long-established real estate company where she was one of the newer employees.
Hyman was working late in her office on the 33rd floor when she was fatally shot at random by the gunman, police said.
Her LinkedIn profile says Hyman graduated in 2020 from the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.
"Julia was a cherished member of our community, and her loss is deeply felt across the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and all who knew and loved her during this time of unimaginable grief," the college's dean, Andrew Karolyi, said in a statement.
"Her journey was marked by determination, warmth, and a strong commitment to learning. We grieve this heartbreaking loss and extend our deepest condolences to everyone who was touched by her light," said Kate Walsh, a professor of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.