Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Delivers Remarks at Funeral of Police Officer Adeed Fayaz

February 9, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams: Today, I join so many of my friends that I have known for so many years here in this community. I can remember like it was yesterday when Hassan first brought me to Coney Island Avenue and I met with the men and women of this community. From my days as a state senator to my days as the borough president, you have been my brothers and my sisters and we stood side by side together so many times. If it was a horrific earthquake in Pakistan, if it was a terrorist attack in Lahore, if it was to just celebrate and stand with each other. I also remember in 2001, I watched this community decimated. I watched many families leave and return to Pakistan. I watched stores close and young people were swept up, never to be seen again.

And out of all of that pain, out of all of that uncertainty, many of you stayed and you rebuilt. And instead of turning those painful moments into hate, you turned those moments into purpose. And you encouraged the young men of this community to join the Police Department and to become a symbol of what is great about this country. You encouraged them to organize and recruit and bring about public safety to your community. You began to start the process of watering the tree of freedom that all of us New Yorkers and Americans sit under from the shades of the hot rays of hate. That is the life we are celebrating today.

Officer Adeed Fayaz is a representative of that. He stayed. He raised his right hand. He swore to take an oath to serve and protect. He became the symbol of what's great about this country. Today, we celebrate his life. We celebrate the fortitude and courage that the Muslim officers throughout this entire city have joined all the other officers of different walks of life, different ethnicities, and different backgrounds to state we will live in harmony and rid our streets of the terror and the fear that so many have to endure. We lost a brother officer to a senseless act of violence. Something that we believe we are obligated to place ourselves in harm's way to prevent families from enduring such pain. And to the family, our hearts are broken, but our arms are strong. We will hold you and lift you up and show you that your son, your husband did not die in vain. We are in pain and just as many years ago, we had to turn pain into purpose. We are at that moment again.

Adeed leaves behind a family. Not only was he a police officer, but he was a dad. When the police commissioner and I walked into the hospital and we saw these two beautiful children, it struck us and it hurts so much. And then to listen to the painful cries of his wife and all that pain. Something that has become too familiar to those of us who respond to the hate we witness. My heart goes out to Madiha Sabeel. We will continue to pray and lift you up. And to Adeed's two beautiful children, four-year-old son Rayan and three-year-old Zayan. Children, there is no story we can give to the loss of a dad. There is no word in our vocabulary that we associate what happens when children lose their parents in this magnitude.

It is painful, and I ask of all of you who are here today, those who adorn the blue uniform and wear the shields on their chest, those who come to this mosque and pray, those who are listening to our words: we will never surrender our city to hate and violence. Together, we will stand and use this painful moment as a purposeful moment. We've done in so many times in the past. I know this community. I know how much you believe in public safety, how much you believe in family, how much you believe in faith. This is the moment where we must lean on that faith and ensure that our brother did not lose his life in vain. May God be with you, may God be with the family, and may God be with the City of New York. Thank you.