Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Multifaith Prayer Vigil to Honor Victims of Shooting in Midtown Manhattan

July 29, 2025

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6IqtrS7YJo

Pastor Gilford Monrose, Faith Advisor, Office of the Mayor: Good evening to everyone. And thank you for taking some time today to join us for our multi-faith time of reflection for the mass shooting that happened in our beloved city yesterday. 

We're here to share some prayers, some time to get comfort, to share our condolences, to share our love to those whose lives have been lost. We're glad to be called together by Mayor Eric Adams and joined by Governor Hochul and a string of faith leaders and senior officials within the Adams administration. And so today will be a display of our faith and our resilience. To open up with an invocation, I'll call Pastor Paul B. Mitchell to the microphone.

Pastor Paul B. Mitchell: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing us together this evening for this time of healing. Let us pray. 

[Prayer.]

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, pastor, and I want to thank the governor of the State of New York. She has been a consistent partner in looking after the safety of New Yorkers. Every time we reach out to her to talk about these issues that impact her, she responded with a very clear focus and mission that this city, the residents of this city, are crucial to the stability of our entire state, and her joining us here today is a clear indicator of how she mourns with the city and the lives of those innocent civilians and our beloved police officer. 

This is an extremely, extremely challenging moment for me emotionally. As I sat with Officer Islam's dad and learning that he was his only son, it was difficult for me to walk to that podium last night and do my role as a mayor because though I'm the mayor, I'm still a man, and I thought about my baby, my young son that I watched and I raised and how much I poured into him and how much I gave my life for him. And to lose a child, it is one of the most abnormal things that could happen in our society. 

Children are supposed to bury their parents. Parents are not supposed to bury their children. This senseless act of violence, as the police commissioner and I walked through the building and saw the blood trails and the videos and the level of violence that I have not witnessed at that level before. And the intersectionality of this journey that I have in the building and the offices, I worked as a mailroom and stockroom attendant in 345 Park Avenue as a young man, and to have to walk through and see the remnants of violence of that level tore at me. 

And then I reflected on 2001 after the terrorist attack in this city and a group of Muslims officers came to me because they were being victimized because of the attack and because of their faith and belief. I joined them and we moved forward to start an organization that recruited Muslim officers to be part of the New York City Police Department. And their ranks and numbers have grown throughout the years. And they bring with them a level of faith, a level of family, a level of commitment and level of dedication that we all should be proud of because it is a signature of who we are as a city. 

This is New York. New York is not a person who drives across the coast and comes here and commits this act of violence. We are New York of different faiths and beliefs and different houses of worship. We need our faith community at this moment to do something that is more powerful than any legislative agenda and that is prayer. It is time to pray. It is time to lean into our faith. And understand the significance of the power of prayer and what it represents. 

Officer Islam is a symbol of the greatness of this city. Our ranks have increased in all the different ethnic and community groups from South to Central America to Asia to across the Middle East. You're seeing officers that are now ambassadors for their community and they are welcoming faces that state the New York City Police Department is representative of the full diversity of our entire city. But more importantly, that should not be lost on us. 

We have advocated for smart, sensible gun reform. You cannot create an environment with a person who does not have the mental capacity and the tools and the bullets to walk into any building in America and create havoc of this proportion. We cannot respond to senseless gun laws through vigils. It must be responded to through legislation. It is time to turn the corner of a society where automatic weapons are as easy to get as a cell phone.

We need to rethink who we are as a society. That there is a level of comfortability to carry an illegal weapon of this magnitude. Yes, we can say we're the safest big city in America. Yes, we can talk about what we have done, the governor and the police commissioner and I. Yes, we have broken records of the lowest number of shootings and homicides in the recorded history of the city. 

Yes, we can talk about the almost 23,000 guns we've removed off the streets. But that is not a consolation for the families who lost their loved ones inside 345 Park Avenue. And not only those who lost loved ones, but the physical and mental trauma that will face those employees every day. We want to thank our corporate security entities. We put together a team of security consultants from all of our corporate leaders that sat down with us each month to create ways of how we ensure you are safe when you go to your place of employment, [and] to ensure that we hold active shooter drills. 

I want to thank Rudin Management for what they did, for making sure they had safe rooms and safe spaces for their employees to be able to lock in place. I want to thank them for ensuring that we had active shooter drills to make sure that employees know what to do. That is responsible behavior for employers. I want to thank those who participated in those drills and I believe it saved lives. I want to thank the men and women of the Police Department who were conscious that they were running into a building [where] an active shooter was on the ground, not knowing who else was in the building or any form of incendiary device that was waiting to trap them. 

I want to thank them for their response for running towards danger when we all want to run away from that. That's what the men and women of the Police Department do every day and our law enforcement communities what they do every day. And I want to ask those who want to demonize their activity to have a personal reflection of understanding the role that we believe public safety play in our city. 

But yes, if you add up the drills, if you add up the responses, if you add up the safe rooms, you add them all up. You come to the sum that isn't an indictment on our society when we have to practice what to do when a shooter enters our buildings or our schools. That's not the city or country we want to live in. There's no consolation prize that we can award ourselves because we're preparing people when they hear a gunshot, how to respond. That is not who we want to be as a society. And I don't want to go to a vigil where your loved ones, your child, your spouse is lost due to senseless violence. That's not the city I want to live in. And it's not the country I want to live in. 

We can do better. And there have been too many mass shootings in our society. The over proliferation of guns and weapons and the easy access to them must come to a stop. And the numbers are disheartening. Bullets are carving highways of death throughout the community. And even when the actual bullet hits the body of a human being, the trajectory of pain rips apart the anatomy of our society. 

We deserve better. And I'm going to commit my life just as I did when I wore that bulletproof vest and stood on street corners and protected the children and families of this city. I would do it as the mayor of this city. And I personally feel responsible for what happened to each one of the victims of this shooting. It's my job to keep you safe. That's what I swore to do when I took the oath of office, and I'm committed to doing it. And I'm going to give my life to doing it. 

It breaks my heart when I see what happened to these innocent New Yorkers. It tore me apart. It took something away from me. But it recommitted me to what we must do to keep New Yorkers safe. And I want to thank the men and women who are here from our faith-based institutions. Because I don't care what anyone says, it's time to pray. It's time to pray. 

There's some things that are beyond who we are. It allows in our ability to put our combined energy and spirits together as we start the process of healing that is needed. We will wrap our arms around Officer Islam. We'll wrap our arms around our four other victims. 

We'll be here because that's what we do as New Yorkers. No one shows a greater level of compassion when it's time to show our display of need for others. We know how to do that because we do it best. We've been here before. We've gone through difficult times as New Yorkers. But we've shown the country our resiliency and our ability to stand tall. 

This is what this city represents. And I want to thank you for coming out tonight and showing your support for the victims at 345 Park Avenue. They will always be remembered. And we will always stand up in the face of hate in this city. I want to turn it over to the governor of the State of New York and thank her for being with us tonight. Governor Hochul.

Governor Kathy Hochul: Mayor Adams, on behalf of everyone in this city and the great State of New York, I want to thank you for the leadership that you showed in this trying moment to show what compassion is, what having a heart is all about, but also, you know, to be calm in the face of the storm. 

When I witnessed you going on television, I saw how challenging it was for you, but you stood there and persevered to describe the horrific actions that had taken place. This unfolded a few hours earlier. So I want to thank you again, Mayor Adams, for everything you have done for this city and continue to do, particularly keeping all of us safe. 

Commissioner Jessica Tisch. One of the most humble people you'll ever meet, but she deserves our gratitude for the courage she has displayed in this moment of standing up to the hatred and the violence and supporting the men and women of the NYPD. Thank you, Commissioner Tisch, for all you do for us. And to all of you who are watching this, thank you for being here. And to all of you who have come out here tonight, it's a hot evening. It's an emotional evening. 

They say that grief is the price you pay for love. What does that mean? It means there were four individuals who just a little more than 24 hours ago walked this earth. They were so well loved by their parents, a husband, a wife, their children, their co-workers, that the pain is so searing right now, it seems unending. As I called a young husband who told me with such great pride about his wife and her career and how she was raising their 12-year-old and 14-year-old, I didn't know what to say. I said, I've been married to a man I cherish. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I don't know what to say to you to lift this pain off your heart. 

But I want you to know that we love you. As a city and as a state, we love you. And we are also traumatized by what you've had to go through. All of them. I spoke to the young widow, an expectant mother of two, expecting her third child. I spoke to her today and I just tried to convey again that sense of compassion that all of us as human beings feel. I said, is there anything we can do for you? And in her broken English, she just said, pray for us. 

So I am so proud that the mayor and others have gathered here tonight to allow us to have that moment of prayer, to lift up these families who are asking for our prayers. And we will do that tonight. And going forward, I promised her that. We will keep that promise this evening. And you're hearing a lot about hearts. Hearts connotes love. Today, I could not stop but think about that iconic logo that defines all of us. The “I Love New York.” That big red heart in the middle of it. You see it everywhere. Tonight, my friends, that heart is broken because there's collective pain shared by all of us. 

There's one thing I know, though, that that heart will mend. It'll heal because we are resilient. We are strong. We have been tested over and over and over again. We always come together in tragedy to lift each other up. That's what makes us so special here in New York. And I'll also echo the mayor's remarks. But yes, we'll offer condolences and love and compassion, prayers above all. 

But if this nation misses yet another moment to do what is right that they've neglected to do for decades, then shame on them. This is the time to stand up and say no more slaughter by a weapon of mass destruction designed to kill people on the battlefield, not in our buildings here in the great City of New York. That era must end. We've been to too many vigils, too many lives lost, whether it's a school, a concert, or at a grocery store in the city of Buffalo, my hometown, or just three years ago, we lost 10 of my neighbors, randomly selected. 

It has to end, my friends, and I know how it can start. Congress must have the courage to say, we are a great nation. Our citizens deserve better. We respect all rights. But no one should claim as a constitutional right the ability to bear an arm that I assure you our founding fathers did not contemplate when our Constitution was written. So that must end now. 

So I say, we take our voices, we march, we continue in the lives of others we've lost. We must speak out in their names so this moment is not lost. And I'm proud to team up with the mayor and others who want to join in that fight once again. It's not a new fight. 

But for once and for all, let's put this to bed and say our nation deserves safety and security and to know when they say goodbye to loved ones, they go off to work in the morning, or they're a police officer, office worker, they're going to see their family again at the end of the day. That did not happen yesterday, but it must happen going forward. Otherwise, who are we as a people if we can't stand up for each other? 

May God bless the NYPD. May God bless the families whose lives have been shredded and torn apart. May God bless the people of this great city and the state of New York. And above all, God bless the United States of America and heaven help her in our time of need. Thank you very much.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good evening, everyone. To the families of those we've lost, to the loved ones of Officer Didarul Islam, to his fellow officers, and to every New Yorker gathered here in grief. Tonight, we come together in sorrow and remembrance to honor four lives taken far too soon. And for those of us in the NYPD, we carry a particular weight as we mourn one of our own. 

Officer Didarul Islam was a New York City police officer who represented the very best of what our city has to offer. He served this city with quiet strength and unwavering purpose. He didn't ask for anything in return. He served the people of New York City. He didn't ask for attention. He didn't ask for praise. He simply showed up tour after tour and did the work that holds this city together. 

In the Jewish tradition, when someone passes, may their memory be a blessing. It's not a comfort, it's a call to make sure that what was good in someone's life doesn't end with their death. Because a memory doesn't become a blessing on its own. It becomes one when we carry forward what was best in them. Their courage, their kindness, their sense of duty, their love for others. And even now, in these first painful hours, we see that beginning. 

The people who knew them best are already carrying that blessing. In the stories they share, in the silence they keep, in the depth of the loss that they hold together. That kind of love doesn't disappear. That kind of service doesn't end. Aland, Julia, my beautiful friend Wesley, and police officer Didarul Islam. They were taken from our arms in violence. They now rest in God's arms in peace. May their memories be a blessing.

Pastor Monrose: Thank you so much for those reflections from our leaders. And now we'll turn it over to our faith leaders to have moments of prayer.

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