NFL commissioner Roger Goodell honored the hero NYPD officer, Didarul Islam, who lost his life Monday night when a crazed gunman stormed the league’s headquarters in Manhattan.
Four people were killed when shooter Shane Tamura of Las Vegas entered the Midtown skyscraper with an AR-15 rifle and opened fire, wounding NFL employee Craig Clementi before taking his own life.
“A gunman committed an unspeakable act of violence in our building at 345 Park Avenue. One of our employees was seriously injured in this attack,” Goodell said in the statement to employees.
“He is currently in the hospital and in [a] stable condition. NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family.”
The commissioner said Islam, who was a father of two with a third child on the way, “gave his life to protect others.”
“We are deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively, and to Officer Islam, who gave his life to protect others,” Goodell said.
NYC Midtown shooting timeline
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- The shooter, Shane Tamura, 27, is seen on surveillance footage getting out of a double-parked black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets, with an M4 rifle.
- He walks towards the skyscraper, 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 as he 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 man is shot and killed on that floor.
- “He then proceeds down a hallway and shoots himself in the chest,” ending his rampage.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
The statement told New York-based employees to “work remotely” on Tuesday, or “take the day off” in the wake of the shooting.
“There will be an increased security presence at 345 Park Avenue in the days and weeks to come,” he wrote. “Every one of you is a valued member of the NFL family. We will get through this together.”
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