Aland Etienne, the security guard murdered in a mass shooting committed by Park Ave. shooter Shane Tamura after spending the final moments of his life trying to save others, was laid to rest Saturday.
Scores of mourners, including mayoral Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani, showed up for the funeral for the 46-year-old guard, who, after being mortally wounded, crawled to hit a button to stop the elevators from taking Tamura to the upper floors during his July 28 rampage at 345 Park Ave.
The father of four and grandfather of two “made the ultimate sacrifice, choosing bravery and selflessness over fear,” his family wrote in the program for the service at Guarino Funeral Home on Flatlands Ave. in Canarsie. “In his final moments, he acted to protect others, saving countless lives at the cost of his own.”
His youngest child is just 5 years old. Heartbroken relatives didn’t know how to break the news to the little boy after the shooting.
“The little boy thinks that daddy’s at the hospital,” Camille Isemylee, who is dating Etienne’s youngest brother and refers to Etienne as her brother-in-law, told the Daily News two days after the shooting. “He thinks he’s coming, you know? That he’s coming, that something happened to Daddy and that Mommy’s going to go get Daddy.”
After emigrating from Haiti to the U.S. in 2017, Etienne, an aspiring filmmaker, became a security guard and soon began working at “one of Manhattan’s most prominent buildings,” his family said.
“To know Aland was to know peace,” his family said. “He was a steady presence in a noisy world — measured, thoughtful and strong. He carried himself with humility and honor, speaking volumes without raising his voice.”
“His impact was felt not just in words, but in action, loyalty, and love,” the family wrote.
On the day of the shooting, Tamura shot Etienne as he jumped behind a security desk trying to sound the alarm.
After being hit, he “tried to crawl to hit the button to recall the elevators so the elevators wouldn’t go to the top floor,” Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” in the days after the shooting.
A raging Tamura walked into the lobby of 345 Park Ave. armed with an assault weapon at about 6:30 p.m. that Monday and opened fire, first killing Officer Didarul Islam, who was in his NYPD uniform working a paid security detail authorized by the department.
The gunman then shot Etienne, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, 43, and badly wounded an NFL employee before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor, where he killed 27-year-old Rudin employee Julia Hyman, and then took his own life.
Tamura, who had a documented mental illness and had been hospitalized twice in Las Vegas for being suicidal, believed he suffered from CTE, a brain disease football players often suffer from repetitive blows to the head.
That belief sent him on a deadly rampage to Park Ave. and the headquarters of the NFL, which he blamed for his condition even though he only played football in high school.
A GoFundMe launched to help Etienne’s family has raised over $192,000.
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