By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The New York police officer killed in a mass shooting in a Manhattan skyscraper on Monday was described by the city’s mayor and police commissioner as a heroic Bangladeshi immigrant who saved lives while “putting his life on the line.”
A gunman opened fire on Monday inside a midtown office tower, killing four people, including Officer Didarul Islam, 36, before fatally shooting himself, officials said.
“We lost four souls to another senseless act of gun violence, including a member of the New York City Police Department, Officer Islam,” New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters in a press conference late on Monday.
Adams said the officer was a three and a half year veteran of the police department.
“He was saving lives, he was protecting New Yorkers,” Adams said. “He loved this city, and everyone we spoke with stated he was a person of faith and a person that believed in God.”
Adams said he met the officer’s family on Monday night.
“I told them that he was a hero, and we admire him for putting his life on the line,” the mayor added.
Islam was married, had two young sons, and his wife is pregnant with a third child, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in the press conference.
“He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice — shot in cold blood,” she said.
Islam was working on a paid security detail in the building when the shooting occurred, the commissioner added.
Such details allow “companies to hire officers in uniform to provide extra uniform security,” she said.
Excluding Islam, 42 federal, state, county, municipal, military, and U.S. territories officers have died in the line of duty in the first half of 2025, according to preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Michael Perry)
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