Lots of of individuals packed a Brooklyn funeral house Saturday to recollect slain Park Avenue safety guard Aland Etienne, considered one of 4 folks gunned robe by Shane Tamura in a rampage at an NYC workplace constructing.
Etienne’s 7-year-old son, Ralandy, wept as he stood close to his father’s casket, which had the phrase “Father” etched in gold lettering on the inside lining, whereas the 46-year-old guard’s mom broke down and shouted out his title in anguish.
“You had been the love of my life and the daddy of my son. There are phrases not sufficient to specific the void that you simply left if you left us,” mentioned Rachelle Paoli, Etienne’s fiancée and Ralandy’s mother.
“You left with out saying goodbye, and the void and struggling that you simply left, it has no method to categorical … the issues that we’ve deliberate to do collectively, akin to shopping for a home, to ship our son to college and to ensure his dream to turn out to be an astronaut in the future.”
“Aland wasn’t simply my brother, he was my pal, my protector and my supporter. In case you knew him, his vitality was unforgettable. He may mild up a room with a smile, calm a storm with a joke and provide a shoulder with out saying a phrase,” his brother, Gathman Etienne, instructed the standing room solely crowd.
“What occurred in New York was mindless. It took away a person with who nonetheless had a lot to provide, a person who was working making an attempt to supply for his household, a person who must be right here with us in the present day and never spoken about prior to now tense. However regardless that his life was reduce quick his impression was not.”
“He left reminiscences we’ll always remember.”
Mayor Adams, US Home of Representatives Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic socialist and mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani had been among the many crowd of greater than 300.
“Aland Etienne’s life was reduce quick by horrible violence, and his household misplaced a heat, loving, beneficiant soul. I’m praying for his soul’s everlasting relaxation and his household’s damaged hearts,” Mayor Adams wrote on X after the service.
Etienne was considered one of 4 folks killed when gun-toting maniac Shane Tamura opened hearth at 345 Park Ave. on July 28 in an assault meant to focus on the NFL headquarters.
The daddy of two was unarmed and tried to duck behind a safety desk within the foyer to take cowl when Tamura approached the elevator and fired the deadly shot.
Blackstone govt Wesley LePatner and NYPD Police Officer Didarul Islam had been additionally slaughtered earlier than Tamura took an elevator to the thirty third flooring, the place he shot and killed 27-year-old Rudin Administration affiliate Julia Hyman after which himself.
Etienne’s household remembered him as a hero who acted bravely in his last moments.
“Aland made the last word sacrifice, selecting bravery and selflessness over worry. In his last moments, he acted to guard others – saving numerous lives at the price of his personal,” his obituary learn.
“To know Aland was to know peace. He was a gradual presence in a loud world — measured, considerate, and powerful.”
Etienne immigrated to the US from Haiti in 2017 with a “dream to create a greater life for his household and people he cherished.”
In Brooklyn, he reconnected with Paoli, who was his classmate once they had been youngsters in Haiti. The pair’s romance blossomed, they usually welcomed their son shortly into the brand new relationship.
He additionally leaves behind three youngsters from a earlier relationship and a grandson.
“You had been at all times somebody I counted on in good and in dangerous instances,” Paoli grieved.
