Fighting gun violence in NYC starts with getting criminals and illegal weapons off the streets
Last week, New York was struck by an act of senseless violence when four innocent people were murdered, and another was seriously injured, in an act of cold blood in a Park Avenue office building. As a city, we are in shock.
As your mayor, I am heartbroken. The outpouring of grief I have seen and shared in this past week has been devastating. Families and entire communities have been shattered, and we, once again, have to ask why.
As we have seen time and time again, the availability of guns in this nation is a major factor in the deaths of these four innocent New Yorkers.
When guns are on the streets and in the hands of anyone with a few hundred dollars, the danger expands from states that have lax gun laws to anywhere in America.
That is what is so frightening about these kinds of crimes. The victims could have been any of us. A mother about to leave the office on her way home from work, a daughter going to grab drinks with a group of friends, or a security guard just doing his duty.
One of the souls we lost was NYPD Detective Didarul Islam, a husband and father who was protecting his community and providing for his family. He put his life on the line and made the ultimate sacrifice, and he died as he lived: a hero.
New York City is built on our commitment to public safety and the courage of our NYPD officers who truly are New York’s Finest. Their dedication to protecting each and every New Yorker is what makes everything else we do as a city possible.
As a former police officer myself, I know the risks they take and how hard they work — I know the commitment to the higher calling they have answered. I cannot overstate my gratitude for the officers who rushed to the scene and prevented further catastrophe.
From the start of this administration, we have made public safety our number one focus, our North Star.
We put thousands more officers on our streets, committed over $485 million to our new ‘Blueprint for Community Safety,’ and invested a record $86 million in our CMS violence prevention groups. We have also focused relentlessly on bringing down gun violence. Since the beginning of this year alone, the NYPD has taken over 3,100 illegal firearms off the streets, and since we came into office three years ago, we have now seized more than 22,800 illegal guns. Each illegal gun we take off our streets is saving lives and damming up one more river that leads to the sea of violence. It is a weapon that no longer threatens the lives of our family, our friends, or our neighbors.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: Every New Yorker must be safe and feel safe, confident that their city is looking out for them and their families no matter where they live.
We must get criminals off our streets and illegal guns out of their hands. We must enforce our laws, prosecute wrongdoers, and fight recidivism.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
There is no room for compromise when it comes to the safety of our citizens. It’s why I was the co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and it’s why I have prioritized fighting ghost gun retailers to remove illegal, untraceable weapons from our streets.
Gun violence is not a New York problem — it is an American problem. New York City has some of the strictest gun laws, yet the rest of America has not kept up. We cannot prioritize guns over the lives of our brothers and sisters, and we cannot keep responding to senseless gun violence with just vigils.
Americans have seen enough violence, have shared enough thoughts and prayers; we must take action. And our response to this tragedy must be worthy of the memories of those we have lost.
As your mayor, I will continue to call for common-sense gun reform on a national level and to work with every agency and every community to keep New York the safest big city in the nation.
I am thinking of all the families impacted by last week’s tragic shooting, and of all the needless shootings we continue to see across our nation, and am recommitting myself to fighting gun violence every way I can. May Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman, Didarul Islam, and Wesley LePatner’s memories be a blessing.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
