Overview:
Haitian immigrant Aland Etienne, 46, was killed in a Midtown workplace capturing whereas working as a safety guard. Union leaders and family honored him as a faithful father and “hero,” reviews THE CITY. He had labored at 345 Park Ave. for six years.
Claudia Irizarry Aponte / THE CITY
The safety guard who was slain within the mass capturing in a Midtown workplace constructing on Monday was remembered by his brother as a hard-working man, hero, devoted father and aspiring filmmaker who was proud to play his half “in making the town of New York a little bit safer each day.”
Aland Etienne, 46, is among the many 4 victims of Monday’s deadly attack at 345 Park Avenue, a outstanding workplace tower that homes the headquarters of the Nationwide Soccer League and a number of other massive funding companies together with Blackstone.
“I’m the youthful brother of my hero,” stated sibling Smith Etienne.
“Aland was a brother, son, a loving father — implausible father,” he continued. “He was a sensible dude and because the oldest brother I regarded as much as him in every part I do.”
The youthful Etienne spoke on the headquarters of the union 32BJ SEIU, of which Aland was a member, honoring each him and slain NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, 36, on Wednesday. He was flanked by Etienne’s widow, Rachelle Paoli; union president Manny Pastreich; and Democratic mayoral candidate Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
Their deaths, stated Pastreich, underscore the hazards and sacrifices safety personnel face on the road of responsibility. He invoked the same assault in 2015 that resulted within the dying of a 32BJ member, safety officer Idrissa Camara, who was fatally shot by a gunman who stormed a federal constructing on Varick Road, then killed himself.
“Safety officers on this metropolis know that they put their life on the road once they placed on their uniforms, they’re there to do their jobs as a primary line of protection in every of those buildings, they usually know that they’re typically in hurt’s means,” stated Pastreich. “These important employees are sometimes missed and unseen till moments like this, that reveal the true worth of their work and their contributions.”
A member of 32BJ SEIU’s safety division since 2017, Etienne labored at 345 Park Ave. for greater than six years below the safety agency McLane Safety. He was unarmed on the time of the capturing, a union spokesperson stated. Representatives for McLane Safety didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Etienne, a Haitian immigrant who lived in Brooklyn, is survived by Paoli and his two youngsters, mother and father, and 5 siblings. He liked making residence films in Haiti and had aspirations to develop into a filmmaker, however he devoted himself to his household as a substitute, and nurtured his love of movies in his brother, now a filmmaker primarily based in Florida.
“He poured into me and supported my profession in movie as an extension of himself,” Smith stated. “It’s an instance of the type of particular person he’s.”
“He was greater than a brother — he was a father, a son, and a lightweight in our lives,” one other brother, Gathmand Etienne, wrote on Facebook. “Our hearts are shattered, and we’re asking to your prayers and power as we navigate this painful time.”
The others killed have been Blackstone government Wesley LePatner, 44; and 27-year-old Julia Hyman, who labored for actual property agency Rudin Administration.
Safety digital camera pictures launched by the NYPD confirmed Shane Tamura strolling into the constructing shortly after 6 p.m. Monday holding a rifle, which officers later recognized as an M4. Tamura shot three individuals together with Islam and Etienne within the foyer earlier than getting on an elevator and going to the thirty third flooring the place he fired on Hyman earlier than taking his personal life, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated at a press convention Monday night time.
Adams stated throughout a televised interview on CBS Mornings on Tuesday that investigators discovered a notice on Tamura that implied he had persistent traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a mind illness attributable to repeated concussions, and appeared responsible the NFL for his accidents.
“He, from our preliminary investigation, he took the incorrect elevator financial institution as much as the NFL headquarters,” stated Adams.
Islam was additionally remembered as a “hero” by Shamsul Haque, a retired police officer and founding father of the Bangladeshi American Police Affiliation, of which Islam was a member, on the identical 32BJ occasion on Wednesday.
“He’s one in every of us, and shedding him looks like shedding a brother,” stated Haque.
Islam, from The Bronx’s forty seventh Precinct, was working off-duty as a safety guard on the Park Avenue tower on the time of the assault. An immigrant from Bangladesh, he’s survived by his spouse and their two youngsters; she is pregnant with their third youngster.
Mamdani, contemporary off a visit to his native Uganda to rejoice his current marriage, stated he met with Islam’s household in The Bronx Wednesday morning for about an hour; he stated he accepted the household’s invitation to the funeral on Thursday.
He mourned the lives lower brief and known as for strengthening the nation’s gun legal guidelines. Although New York has a number of the strictest gun legal guidelines within the nation, he famous that Tamura purchased his weapon in Nevada.
“We’re solely as protected because the weakest gun legal guidelines on this nation,” he stated.
Mamdani stated he has not talked to Mayor Eric Adams concerning the capturing, however he did have a dialog with Tisch.
On the occasion, Mamdani additionally expressed remorse over resurfaced social media posts he made earlier than elected workplace that critics have stated are insensitive to law enforcement officials, and that his opponents have seized on all through his mayoral marketing campaign.
He responded particularly to questions on a 2020 social media submit wherein he replied “nature is healing” to a person who described seeing a police officer crying in his automobile.
“The tweet that you just referred to is a tweet that’s clearly out of step with the best way wherein I not solely view law enforcement officials, the immense work that they do, but additionally the seriousness with which we have to deal with that work, and the difficulties that include that work,” stated Mamdani.
“I’m not a candidate that’s mounted in time. I’m one who learns and one which leads. As I’ve grown, a part of meaning specializing in the individuals who should be spoken about.”