P.O. Didarul Islam was off-duty, but in NYPD uniform working at a Department-approved security job inside 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan when a man, who drove in from the western United States, walked inside and, without warning, opened fire with an assault rifle. Officer Islam was the first to be shot, but the perp eventually killed three civilians and seriously injured a fourth. While the City was accustomed to mindless violence, the use of an assault rifle, the random nature of the victims, and the tony Park Avenue location in the middle of a busy business day shocked, not only jaded New Yorkers, but the entire nation. The building was the headquarters of the National Football League and it was surmised that the perpetrator had intended to go to their offices. In his car, left running on the street, and in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked at a casino, he left notes describing the CTE brain damage he believed he had acquired while playing football in high school. However, none of 27-year-old Shane Tamura’s victims on Monday, July 28, 2025, had any connection to him. He had gotten into the wrong elevator and corridor and never got to the football league’s offices. His victims were all shot and killed at random before he turned his weapon on himself. Officer Islam was in the lobby and was ambushed by the killer. The incident was the largest mass shooting in New York City since year 2000. Officer Islam, who was regularly assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx, was a hard-working cop, a devoted son, husband, and father, and a devout Muslim who simply wanted to better himself and provide the best life he could for his family. An only child, when his father learned of his son’s death, he suffered a minor stroke. Islam was married with two young sons and his wife was pregnant with their third child, due in August. The reverberations throughout the tightly-knit Bangladeshi community in Parkchester, Bronx, where Officer Islam lived, were loud and deeply felt. Friends and neighbors were shocked that the quiet, yet friendly, helpful, respectful immigrant was gone at such a young age and with only three-and-a-half years as a member of the service. When he first immigrated to the country, Islam worked as a security guard in the school system where he fell in love with the idea of policing. Officer Islam, who often mentored young men in his community, was also generous, friends said, and he not only donated thousands of dollars to help his cousin establish a local mosque: the Bronx Islamic Cultural Center Masjid Bilal, where they worshipped; but he would also send money back to Bangladesh to assist family members and villagers with medical bills and other needs. To provide for this, he volunteered to work long hours, special details, overtime, and Paid Detail Unit jobs, such as the one where he was killed, to earn extra money for his family. While thunderstorms threatened to explode in the sky during the humid summer afternoon, thousands of members of the service from as far away as the United Arab Emirates lined the streets of The Bronx for Officer Islam’s funeral on July 31, 2025. The Police Commissioner, who coincidentally, through shared charity work, knew one of the civilian shooting victims, promoted P.O. Islam to Detective first grade. City and State Officials, including Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul, spoke eloquently about the young Officer and what it means to make the ultimate sacrifice while serving and protecting the people of New York. The New York Times reported, “Deputy Inspector Muhammad Ashraf, commanding officer of the 47th Precinct, opened his words honoring Didarul Islam with a prayer in Arabic that is commonly recited among Muslims in moments of loss. Translated it means, ‘Indeed, to Allah we belong, and indeed to Allah we return.’” Officer Islam was only 36 years old at the time he was killed.