Bronx street co-named for NYPD Det. Didarul Islam, slain in Park Ave. mass shooting

A Bronx street corner was co-named on Saturday to honor Didarul Islam, the slain NYPD officer in last year’s Park Ave. mass shooting.

Dozens of NYPD officers, officials and community members gathered at the corner of E. 172nd St. and Beach Ave. in Parkchester, where the hero cop lived, to unveil the new street sign: Detective First Grade Didarul Islam Way.

“While we will never be able to fill the void of his loss, today we give this city a lasting way to honor Didar’s life and the impact he had on us,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on X.

“By placing Didar’s name on this street in his family’s neighborhood in the Bronx, New York is making him part of the landscape of the city he chose as his home and devoted himself to serving,” Tisch added. “Once a person’s name is placed in our community, that life becomes part of the story New York tells about itself.”

The 36-year-old officer was one of four people shot dead by gunman Shane Tamura at 345 Park Ave. near 51st St. on July 28, when Tamura entered the building with an M4 rifle and opened fire. Islam was in uniform but off duty, working a paid security detail in the building, a side gig approved by the NYPD

An immigrant from Bangladesh, Islam was assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx. He was married with two children, with a third child named Arham who was born three weeks after the shooting. He had been a police officer since 2021, Tisch said.

After the shooting, Tisch promoted Islam to detective first grade.

While at the Police Academy, Islam shared in an essay why he wanted to join the NYPD: The police were there to protect New Yorkers, he said, adding, “I got inspired by their work.”

“The reason why I want to be a police officer, I have been living in this country for the last 12 years, and since my very first day, I have seen NYPD officers create a huge positive impact for the community, and in our community, the crime rate is going down because of the NYPD officers’ hard work,” he wrote. “Also, I have seen in my community when anything happens related to crime, no one is safe until the police come. … NYPD officers work as a blanket of my community, and I got inspired by their hard work. I decided to be part of the NYPD family and contribute myself to the good work to keep our community as well as our country safe.”