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South Asian Police Officer killed
On July 28, Didarul Islam (36), an off-duty NYPD officer, was gunned down in a mass shooting that took place in Midtown Manhattan, in an incident that reignited the debate over gun access and public safety. Detective Islam, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was working a security detail in the Park Avenue skyscraper that houses the National Football League and the global investment firm Blackstone.
The gunman, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, fatally shot four people and critically wounded another in the lobby of the building. The shooter had purchased his weapon in Nevada legally and had then traveled to New York and opened fire inside the office tower. This threw into sharp focus the challenges of state-by-state gun regulation in a country awash with firearms.
While New York mourns and investigates, California is offering a proactive model for prevention.
California’s path forward
At a July 30 briefing hosted by American Community Media, a panel of experts unpacked a legal tool called the Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs), which the state had been employing increasingly to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who are deemed a threat to either themselves or others.
“GVROs aren’t about punishment. They’re about prevention,” said Ari Freilich, Director of the California DOJ’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention. “They’re a parallel to the criminal justice system, developed to restrict access to firearms without incarceration.”
Freilich explained that GVROs are orders that can be issued by a civil court and requested by family members of such individuals, their employers, educators, and/or law enforcement. Once a request is granted, it prohibits an individual from both purchasing and possessing a firearm for a period. “California’s GVRO law has become a model for 19 other states and Washington, D.C. It’s a proactive safety intervention for people on a dangerous pathway to gun violence,” he added.
Freilich also spoke about an aspect of the GVROs’ success that’s less visible. “We don’t know how many acts of terrible violence have been prevented.”
Mental health & GVROs
Dr. Amy Barnhorst, a psychiatrist and a professor at UC Davis, recounted chilling accounts of disturbed individuals she has encountered in her clinical work. One involved a college student who had made threats of mass violence, but didn’t meet the criteria for arrest or psychiatric hospitalization. “He fell into the perfect gap between what the mental health system can do and what the criminal justice system can do,” she said. “GVROs give us a way to remove guns from the equation and buy time to sort out the underlying issues.”
Barnhorst also discussed the role of GVROs in the prevention of suicides. “Nothing is as lethal as a firearm. If you take the gun out of the equation, people survive and often don’t attempt again,” she said. “For every 17 GVROs requested, in cases of suicide concern, one life is saved. That’s a powerful number in medicine.”
Reducing the risk
Chris Dargan, at Cal OES, focused on the state’s “Reduce the Risk” campaign, whose goal is to raise awareness about protection orders. “Even with strong gun safety laws, over 3,000 Californians die from gun violence each year,” he said. “We’re working to ensure that both the public and members of law enforcement, attorneys, and healthcare providers know how and when to engage these orders.”
Dargan noted that the use of GVRO in California has surged by over 500 percent in five years, up from 424 orders filed in 2018 to 2,073 in 2023. During the same period, firearm-related homicides and suicides declined, suggesting a correlation between protective interventions and reduced gun deaths. “The campaign is about empowering Californians—especially those in communities disproportionately affected by gun violence,” he said.
Sergeant Kyle Ikeuchi of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office provided a law enforcement perspective, recounting cases where GVROs were used to disarm individuals threatening workplace violence or school shootings. “We’ve used GVROs in cases where individuals threatened workplace violence or school shootings. It’s a tool that allows us to act before tragedy strikes,” he said.
Ikeuchi stressed the importance of community vigilance: “If you don’t tell law enforcement this kind of information, we don’t know. We rely on the public to help us intervene early.”
Protection orders
Perhaps the most powerful voice came from Gabriella Gonzalez, a member of the Reduce the Risk Youth Advisory Council. A man in her neighborhood, armed with a firearm, stalked and threatened Gonzalez when she was 17. “I had no idea there were protection orders for this,” she said. “If I had known, I would have filed one to protect myself. Even just taking away the guns would have been worth it.”
Gonzalez’s story, marked by trauma and resilience, underscored the importance of outreach and education. “I want other young people to know that it wasn’t their fault, and they didn’t deserve it. There is something you can do,” she said. “Sharing my story is painful, but if it helps even one person speak up or seek justice, it’s worth it.”
In New York, Detective Islam’s funeral procession took place in his own neighborhood of Parkchester with thousands of police officers in attendance. His cousin Ashfaqur Rahman remembered Islam with affection, saying “To the world, he was an NYPD officer who served with dedication and heart, but to us, he is our big brother, someone we could always count on.”
As cities like New York and Los Angeles grapple with the aftermath of high-profile shootings, California’s approach offers a blueprint for action. The panel’s message was clear: education, legal tools, and community engagement can save lives—but only if people are aware of their existence and how to utilize them.
This article was written with support from the American Community Media Fellowship Program.
