Hundreds of people packed a Brooklyn funeral home Saturday to remember slain Park Avenue security guard Aland Etienne, one of four people gunned gown by Shane Tamura in a rampage at an NYC office building.
Etienne’s 7-year-old son, Ralandy, wept as he stood near his father’s casket, which had the word “Father” etched in gold lettering on the interior lining, while the 46-year-old guard’s mother broke down and shouted out his name in anguish.
“You were the love of my life and the father of my son. There are words not enough to express the void that you left when you left us,” said Rachelle Paoli, Etienne’s fiancée and Ralandy’s mom.
“You left without saying goodbye, and the void and suffering that you left, it has no way to express … the things that we have planned to do together, such as buying a house, to send our son to university and to guarantee his dream to become an astronaut one day.”
“Aland wasn’t just my brother, he was my friend, my protector and my supporter. If you knew him, his energy was unforgettable. He could light up a room with a smile, calm a storm with a joke and offer a shoulder without saying a word,” his brother, Gathman Etienne, told the standing room only crowd.
“What happened in New York was senseless. It took away a man with who still had so much to give, a man who was working trying to provide for his family, a man who should be here with us today and not spoken about in the past tense. But even though his life was cut short his impact was not.”
“He left memories we will never forget.”
Mayor Adams, US House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic socialist and mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani were among the crowd of more than 300.
“Aland Etienne’s life was cut short by terrible violence, and his family lost a warm, loving, generous soul. I’m praying for his soul’s eternal rest and his family’s broken hearts,” Mayor Adams wrote on X after the service.
Etienne was one of four people killed when gun-toting maniac Shane Tamura opened fire at 345 Park Ave. on July 28 in an attack meant to target the NFL headquarters.
The father of two was unarmed and tried to duck behind a security desk in the lobby to take cover when Tamura approached the elevator and fired the fatal shot.
Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner and NYPD Police Officer Didarul Islam were also slaughtered before Tamura took an elevator to the 33rd floor, where he shot and killed 27-year-old Rudin Management associate Julia Hyman and then himself.
Etienne’s family remembered him as a hero who acted bravely in his final moments.
“Aland made the ultimate sacrifice, choosing bravery and selflessness over fear. In his final moments, he acted to protect others – saving countless lives at the cost of his own,” his obituary read.
“To know Aland was to know peace. He was a steady presence in a noisy world — measured, thoughtful, and strong.”
Etienne immigrated to the US from Haiti in 2017 with a “dream to create a better life for his family and those he loved.”
In Brooklyn, he reconnected with Paoli, who was his classmate when they were teenagers in Haiti. The pair’s romance blossomed, and they welcomed their son shortly into the new relationship.
He also leaves behind three children from a previous relationship and a grandson.
“You were always someone I counted on in good and in bad times,” Paoli grieved.
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