Clockwise from top left: Victims Wesley LePatner, Julia Hyman, Aland Etienne and NYPD Officer Didarul Islam.Credit: Getty Images; LinkedIn; Facebook; NYPD
ByMatthew Chayesmatthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthewUpdated July 30, 2025 7:39 am
A longtime building guard, a corporate executive and philanthropist, and an NYPD cop moonlighting as building security were the first fatalities of a lone gunman’s rampage Monday. Then the gunman went upstairs to the 33rd floor of a midtown skyscraper and killed an employee of the building’s owner, before shooting himself to death.
As investigators worked to retrace the gunman’s path from Las Vegas to New York that ended at 345 Park Ave., his victims’ families, friends and employers were in mourning and shock.
The guard was Aland Etienne, according to a statement from his labor union, 32BJ SEIU. The executive was Wesley LePatner, 43, who worked in the building for Blackstone Inc., said the company and the Jewish charity UJA-Federation of New York, where she was a board member.
The building owner Rudin Management’s employee was identified by a source as Julia Hyman. Also killed in the shooting wasDidarul Islam, 36, the cop who was working security under the department’spaid detail program.
“Wesley was extraordinary in every way — personally, professionally, and philanthropically. An exceptional leader in the financial world, she brought thoughtfulness, vision, and compassion to everything she did,” the UJA statement said.
She was a senior managing director at Blackstone and was on the boards of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan and the Yale University Library Council, her alma mater.
She also served as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Get the latest breaking news as it happens.
By clicking Sign up, you agree to ourprivacy policy.
In accepting an award in 2023 from UJA, she recalled being one of the only female analysts in her group at Goldman Sachs and having studied the Qing and Ming dynasties of China, “rather than complex accounting and Excel models like the rest of my adult class, I felt different and alone in the early months of my career.”
In a statement, the Heschel School said: “There are no right words for this unfathomable moment of pain and loss. … It was a rare z’chut, a rare privilege, to know Wesley and to learn from her.
She was a uniquely brilliant and modest leader and parent, filled with wisdom, empathy, vision, and appreciation.”
In its statement, 32BJ called Etienne a “New York hero.”
“This tragedy speaks to the sacrifice of security officers who risk their lives every day to keep New Yorkers and our buildings safe. Every time a security officer puts on their uniform, they put their lives on the line,” the statement said.
A cousin of Etienne declined to speak when reporters knocked on the door of his Brooklyn home Tuesday afternoon.
Later, Etienne’s partner came outside and said she wanted reporters to speak with his family first before making any comments. His relatives had been informed and were flying in from Florida, she said.
Source: Newsday_Com
.
