Washington: On Thursday, a sea of friends, family, and fellow officers gathered at the Makki Masjid Muslim Community Center in New York to pay their final respects to Pakistani-American Officer Adeed Fayaz, who was tragically killed in an attempted robbery last week.
Adeed, 26, was a devoted husband and father to two young children. He was shot in the head by the alleged robber, Randy Jones, 38, while attempting to buy a car with his brother-in-law using cash. Despite being off-duty at the time of the attack, the New York Police Department (NYPD) honored him as they would an officer killed in the line of duty.
As a show of respect, the NYPD organized a motorcycle escort and shut down highways to allow for the procession of the police ambulance carrying Officer Fayaz’s casket. Thousands of officers from the tri-state area stood at attention and saluted as the casket was carried into the mosque for the service. Helicopters flew overhead and the streets surrounding the mosque, including Coney Island Avenue, known as “Mini Pakistan”, were closed to traffic. Officer Fayaz was eventually laid to rest at Pinelawn Memorial Park cemetery.
During the funeral, Officer Fayaz’s father, Sadaqat Fayaz, expressed his gratitude to the NYPD for honoring his son and made a plea to the government to consider a ban on guns, asserting that such a ban could save lives. The funeral was led by Allama Maqsood Ahmed Qadri, an Imam from New Jersey, and Imam Tahir Kukaj, the Muslim police chaplain for New York, also offered prayers for the departed soul.
The funeral was a powerful and emotional event that brought together hundreds of Pakistani Americans, many of whom were in tears. The officer’s wife held an American flag as she mourned alongside her mother-in-law. Meanwhile, the suspected killer, Randy Jones, appeared in court on Wednesday and was ordered to be held without bail on charges of murder.
