Four people — including two Jewish women — were killed during a mass shooting at 345 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan on Monday. The gunman, 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, entered the lobby with an assault rifle and opened fire before killing himself on the 33rd floor. Authorities say he may have been targeting the NFL offices.
The two women are Wesley LePatner, 43, a senior managing director at Blackstone Inc. and Julia Hyman, 27, an associate at Rudin Management. Also killed were Didarul Islam, an off-duty NYPD officer working as a private security guard and Aland Etienne, who was also a security guard. An unnamed NFL employee was hospitalized in stable condition.
Wesley LePatner
LePatrner was an active member of the Jewish community. She joined Blackstone in 2014 after a decade at Goldman Sachs. She graduated summa cum laude at Yale University, where she studied history with a focus on the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and Pre-Raphaelite art and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
LePatner was a board member of the UJA-Federation of New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Yale University Library Council.
In 2023, she received UJA’s Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award. In 2023, she led a UJA solidarity mission to Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks. She was active in Park East Synagogue and co-founded or helped lead the Altneu Synagogue, where she mentored other women.
She met her husband Evan at Yale in 1999; they married in 2006. Their children, Emerson and Jonathan, attend the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, where she served on the board of trustees. The school’s website now lists her name in blessed memory as “Wesley LePatner z”l.”
“She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative,” her family said in a statement. “We are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled.”
Los Angeles resident and former Yale classmate of LePatner Sam Yebri eulogized her on Instagram.
Devastated to hear about the senseless murder of my dear friend, Wesley Mittman LePatner. … We first met in the kosher dining hall our freshman year at Yale. We had fierce vigorous debates at the Slifka Center Shabbat dinners over whether LA or N.Y. was the greatest city in the world.” – Sam Yebri
“Devastated to hear about the senseless murder of my dear friend, Wesley Mittman LePatner,” Yebri wrote. “We first met in the kosher dining hall our freshman year at Yale. We had fierce vigorous debates at the Slifka Center Shabbat dinners over whether LA or N.Y. was the greatest city in the world. … She and Evan were always able to do it all and be the first to call on a birthday or special occasion. The world lost an angel and lioness. May Wesley’s memory be an eternal blessing.”
UJA‑Federation of New York said in a statement, “We are devastated by the tragic loss of Wesley LePatner, a beloved member of UJA’s community and a member of our board of directors, who was killed in yesterday’s mass shooting in Midtown. We mourn the loss of a life taken far too soon and extend our heartfelt condolences to her husband, Evan, her children, and entire family. May Wesley’s memory be for a blessing — and a lasting source of strength and inspiration.”
Rebbetzin Avital Chizhik‑Goldschmidt, co‑founder of the Altneu Synagogue, posted on Instagram, “Our dear friend, mentor, community member & builder Wesley LePatner was killed in yesterday’s shooting. Daughter, wife, mother, leader in so many ways, the kindest and sharpest human being … I looked up to her so deeply. holding her beloved Evan & children in our hearts. Hashem have mercy.”
Julia Hyman
Hyman, an associate at Rudin Management, which manages 345 Park Avenue, was also murdered in the shooting. Aish reported that Hyman was also Jewish. She earned a degree from Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration in 2020, and worked for less than a year at Rudin. A native of Manhattan, she graduated from Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, where she captained the girls’ varsity lacrosse team.
NYPD Officer Didarul Islam
Officer Didarul Islam, 36, was an off-duty NYPD officer working a private security detail at the time of the shooting. He was assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx and had been with the department for three-and-a-half years.
Islam immigrated from Bangladesh and lived in New York City with his parents, wife, and two sons. His wife is pregnant with their third child, due next month. A neighbor described him to CNN as “a very good person” and part of a “good” family.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Islam “was doing the job that we asked him to do,” adding, “He put himself in harm’s way … He died as he lived, a hero.” Mayor Eric Adams, who met with Islam’s family, said he was “his father’s only son” and “a person of faith” who believed in “living out the life of a godly person.”
Islam’s body was honored by officials who performed a “guard of honor” outside the hospital shortly after midnight on July 29.
Security Guard Aland Etienne
Aland Etienne worked as a lobby security guard at the building. He was a member of the 32BJ SEIU union, whose president, Manny Pastreich, described him as a “dedicated security officer” who took his job “extremely seriously.” Etienne’s partner of eight years, Rachel Paoli, is the mother of their son, who turns seven this week. His brother, Gathmand Etienne, wrote that he was “more than a brother —he was a father, a son and a light in our lives.”
Rudin Management, which owns the building, referred to him in a statement as a “beloved lobby security guard.”
An employee of the NFL was seriously wounded in the shooting and remains hospitalized in stable condition. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that the shooter “seemed to have blamed the NFL” for his chronic injuries and that “he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank.”
Authorities say Tamura, the shooter, left a note referencing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and holding the NFL responsible. Tamura was a standout football player at
Golden Valley High School and Granada Hills Charter in Los Angeles County, but never played in the NFL.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell instructed NFL staff in New York to work remotely or take the day off and praised the NYPD for their rapid response. “Every one of you is a valued member of the NFL family,” he said. “We will get through this together.”
