NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch was friends with Midtown Manhattan Park Ave. mass shooting victim Wesley LePatner, a Blackstone executive killed in the gunman’s spray of bullets in the lobby.
The two became close through their connections to the UJA-Federation of New York according to police sources. The commissioner’s mother, Merryl Tisch, and LePatner, 43, both served on the organization’s board of directors.
UJA is a large philanthropic organization that raises money for their mission to “care for Jews everywhere and New Yorkers of all backgrounds, respond to crises close to home and far away, and shape our Jewish future.”
Tisch referred to LePatner as “my beautiful friend Wesley” during an emotional multifaith prayer vigil in Bryant Park for the four victims Tuesday night.
The victims “were taken from our arms in violence,” Tisch said. “They now rest in God’s arms in peace. May their memories be a blessing.”
A UJA spokesman said members are “devastated by the tragic loss.”
“Wesley was extraordinary in every way — personally, professionally and philanthropically,” he added. “An exceptional leader in the financial world, she brought thoughtfulness, vision and compassion to everything she did.”
In 2023, LePatner was honored with the Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award at UJA’s Wall Street Dinner, “recognizing her commitment to our community and her remarkable achievements, all the more notable as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field.”
Gunman Shane Tamura, toting an M-4 assault-style rifle, walked into the lobby of the building and opened fire Monday evening, first killing Officer Didarul Islam, who was in his NYPD uniform working as a paid security detail authorized by the department.
Tamura, 27, went on to kill building security officer Aland Etienne and LePatner in the lobby, before taking the wrong elevator to the 33rd floor, where he shot and killed Julia Hyman, an associate at Rudin Management. Tamura then fatally shot himself in the chest.
He had been trying to get to NFL headquarters on a different floor, NYPD officials said.
“Words cannot express the devastation we feel,” Blackstone executives said in a statement. “Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed.”
A Yale graduate, LePatner began her career at Goldman Sachs, where she spent more than a decade before joining Blackstone in 2014, where she served as “global head of core + real estate” and as CEO of one of the largest funds owned by Blackstone, the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, according to the investment firm’s website. The property fund has a $53 billion net asset value.
LePatner was “brilliant, passionate, warm, generous and deeply respected within our firm and beyond,” the statement continued. “She embodied the best of Blackstone.”
LePatner was remembered in a statement from her family as a “most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable.”
“To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague,” they continued. “At this unbearably painful time, we are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled, yet we will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created.”
LePatner served on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and the Yale University Library Council in addition to UJA’s board. She was also a trustee of the all-girls Hewitt School on the Upper East Side.
Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 9:30 AM EDT
