Editor’s Note: Norwood News is officially on our annual summer hiatus. However, we are continuing to publish some ad hoc stories online that we couldn’t get to earlier this year. We hope everyone gets some time to enjoy the last few weeks of summer and thanks, as always, for reading. 

Jamila Islam, the wife of NYPD Det. First Grade Didarul Islam, who was fatally shot during a Midtown Manhattan mass shooting last month, gave birth to a new baby boy at a Manhattan hospital on Sunday, Aug. 17, police officials said on Monday, Aug. 18.

 

“Out of tragedy, a new life has entered this world,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday. “Last night, Jamila Islam, the wife of Detective First Grade Didarul Islam, gave birth to their beautiful son, Arham. Arham joins his two big brothers, Ahyan and Azhaan.” 

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Monday that he had stopped by the hospital lobby on Sunday to speak with Islam’s family members as Jamila was in labor, and later congratulated them on the arrival of the “young, beautiful baby boy.” He later said, “God works in mysterious ways,” and assured the family that the City would continue to support them every step of the way. “They are our family, the family of this great City of New York,” he said. 

At the 47th Precinct, officers wrote on Aug. 11 after raising the American flag to full mast, after it had been lowered to half-mast since Islam’s fatal shooting last month, “Days have passed since we lost Detective First Grade Didarul Islam, yet his memory remains strong in our hearts. As we raise our nation’s flag from half-mast to full, we honor his life of service, his courage, and the lasting legacy he leaves with the NYPD and this city.”

 

Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “As we continue to mourn the tragic death of Detective First Grade Didarul Islam, I join all of New York City in welcoming his baby boy, Arham. We’ll keep working to make sure this city is safe for Arham, his two big brothers, and all New Yorkers.” 

As reported, police said Islam was one of four people killed by gunman, Shane Tamura, 27, from Las Vegas who carried out the mass shooting using an assault rifle which he carried inside 345 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, July 28. Police said Tamura reportedly had mental health issues. They said he later turned the gun on himself and also died. For more on this, click here.

 

Islam’s body was later transferred  from Midtown to The Bronx’s Parkchester neighborhood on Tuesday, July 29, as reported, as New Yorkers reacted to the shocking events, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and others called again for a nationwide ban on assault rifles.

 

As reported, members of the Bronx Bangladeshi American community from Parkchester, Norwood, and elsewhere joined thousands of other residents and police officers from across the New York metropolitan area and beyond at Parkchester’s Jame Masjid on Virginia Avenue to pay their respects to Islam, a Bangladeshi American immigrant, at his funeral during which he was promoted to detective first grade by Tisch.

The gunman also shot Alain Etienne, 46, a father, son, brother and security guard from the Haitian American community and two Jewish American women, as reported, Julia Hyman, 27, a Rudin Management employee, and Wesley LePatner, 43, a wife, mother to a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, who was an executive at Blackstone global investment company. Both attended school in the north Bronx.

 

As reported, Hochul recently fired back at Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas following an apparent diss after he was called out by the Council of American-Islam Relations (CAIR) and others for questioning her decision to wear a headscarf while attending the funeral of Islam, a Muslim, on July 31.

Meanwhile, Tisch said of Islam’s children, “Together, they will carry forward their father’s legacy of service and courage, a legacy the NYPD will guard and uphold with the same devotion Didar gave to this city. Jamila, Ahyan, Azhaan, and now, Arham will forever be part of the NYPD family.”