Aland Etienne, the security guard murdered in a mass shooting in the lobby of a Park Ave. skyscraper, spent the final moments of his life trying to save others, officials revealed Wednesday.
Etienne, 46, “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.”
But the attempt to stop the elevators was unsuccessful and gunman Shane Tamura made it to the 33rd floor, where shot a woman to death after killing Etienne, a police officer, and a woman in the lobby and wounding a survivor.
Etienne’s family is trying to figure out how to tell his 5-year-old son he no longer has a dad. Etienne and his girlfriend had been looking forward to this Saturday, the day their son turns 6. The family lives in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
“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 as she wept.
“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.”
As the investigation into Monday evening’s mass shooting continues, Daughtry said more stories about the life-and-death drama that unfolded “will come out.” Tamura ultimately shot himself to death on the 33rd floor.
Etienne, a Haitian immigrant, leaves behind five younger siblings and a daughter in the Dominican Republic in addition to the son. He had worked at the Park Ave. building for seven years.
“They always say that he is their role model,” Isemylee, 33, said of the siblings.
“Aland is the type of person known for giving to everybody else and forgetting about himself. He’s always the last one to eat, he’s the last one to get in the car. He’s the last one to do anything.”
Etienne’s final act of bravery is typical of how he did his job.
Manny Pastreich, president of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said in a statement that Etienne was “a dedicated security officer who took his job duties extremely seriously.”
“Every time a security officer puts on their uniform, they put their lives on the line,” Pastreich added. “Their contributions to our city are essential, though often unappreciated. Aland Etienne is a New York hero. We will remember him as such.”
Smith Etienne, a brother of Aland Etienne, appeared with Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday afternoon at the headquarters of 32BJ, the building service workers union that his sibling was a member of until his death.
Smith said his brother was an aspiring filmmaker and called him a “people person” who was “extremely extroverted” and “a loving father.”
“It’s definitely a big loss for his family, it’s a loss for his friends,” he said. “New York City has lost a hero.”
Smith said this is a time for new legislation strengthening gun control laws to “help protect people.”
“I think there are things that we can do to prevent such actions from happening on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s time to get to the finish line to make sure we have a secure city, a secure state, a secure country.”
A GoFundMe has been launched to raise money for Aland’s family.
Aland texted Isemylee the day before the shooting, writing, “Good morning sis, how have you been my love?”
She told him she would call him back the next day, but she didn’t get the chance before the shooting erupted.
“He said, ‘Every time you say you’re going to call me back, you never call me back.’ I said, ‘I promise I’m going to call you back.’ My call back was that news,” she said.
“I’m not OK. Nobody is OK. People should know who he was. He was a great father. He was a great brother. Everyone who knew Aland would never have a dull moment. He took me in like a sister.”
Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 9:58 AM EDT
