Anxious New Yorkers grapple with returning to normal after office shooting

A Day of Anxiety in Midtown East

The streets of Midtown East were bustling early Tuesday morning as commuters rushed to work during the typical rush hour. For New Yorkers, it was a day filled with routine — except for the massive NYPD presence outside 345 Park Ave., the building where a Las Vegas man opened fire, killing four people before turning the assault rifle on himself on Monday evening.

Barricades surrounded the front and side entrances of the large office building, which is home to Blackstone, an investment management company, and serves as the NFL's headquarters. About a dozen officers were spaced out around the property, watching like hawks for anyone daring enough to attempt to breach the police line and access the secured space inside, where detectives, crime scene investigators and other authorities scurried around, visible from time to time through the building's large glass windows — some of which were shattered and riddled with bullet holes.

As the morning wore on, men in suits and women in snappy corporate attire whizzed past — some with their headphones in and their heads buried in their phones, occasionally stealing glances at the barricaded building, others brazenly recording videos and snapping pictures of the scene of New York City's deadliest mass shooting in 25 years.

A few pods of commuters traveling to their offices together were overheard whispering among themselves about the horrific incident. "I can't believe your building is so close to where it happened," one man told his friend. Others would echo that sentiment throughout the day.

A woman walking her dog paused for a few moments outside the building, watching the authorities move around inside the property as she described what she was seeing to someone on the phone. Another woman FaceTimed her family in front of the building and showed them where the shooting happened, moving her phone's camera up and down the 634-foot-tall skyscraper.

One woman told The Mirror US that she ventured out of her way to the neighborhood from elsewhere in New York City, hoping to catch a glimpse of the scene out of a morbid curiosity.

A general sense of nervousness pervaded the neighborhood, which is full of office high-rises and trendy, high-end boutiques and shops.

A Personal Nightmare

Julia Barclay left work a few hours early on Monday afternoon and arrived home at around 6 p.m. Minutes later, she got a frantic text from one of her friends in a mutual group chat. It was a news story about the shooting that had just occurred at the Blackstone Building — which is located across the street from the Seagram Building where the 22-year-old Manhattanite works.

She said she counted her blessings that she and some of her coworkers had gone home early that evening — they usually stay until around 8 p.m., she said. But then it sank in that she would have to make the trek back into the office on Tuesday morning.

Barclay said she was "definitely scared" and felt "weird and anxious" about going to work. "I came in at 9 [a.m.], and it was a bunch of cops and reporters there, and cops planted outside of my door," she told The Mirror US.

"It’s everyone’s worst nightmare," she added.

To make matters worse, Barclay said she normally enjoys lunch on the steps of the Blackstone Building and that she walks by it every day to get to and from work.

"I walk down that road and eat on the steps of the Blackstone building every single day and just sit there," she said. "There’s a photo of the shooter, and there are people behind, sitting on the steps. That’s literally me every day around noon or 1, so that was weird."

"And the fact that nobody was seeing what was happening — he walked right past everybody," she continued. "You never know what could happen at any second."

But what was weirder still, Barclay said, is that no one in her office acknowledged that the shooting took place.

"I feel like we should all be talking about it, and it’s weird that everyone came to work today," she said. "It felt like no one should be coming into work today. It feels like it’s weirdly normalized."

Nevertheless, the increased NYPD presence in the area made her feel safer coming in, she said.

A Jarring Experience

By chance, Julia Maimone-Medwick and her boss decided to work from home on Monday. Toward the end of the workday, however, she was met with a flurry of texts from coworkers, who sent details about a shooting happening in the building across the street from hers.

Then, she turned on the news, and there was her office building, visible in the background of some shots showing the active scene unfolding at 345 Park Ave.

"It was pretty unnerving," the 38-year-old New Yorker told The Mirror US. "Seeing your building on TV? That is very jarring."

Maimone-Medwick said she and her coworkers are alright, as is everyone she personally knows who works in the area. Nevertheless, coming into work on Tuesday morning, she said she was "a little bit sensitive."

"We weren't even sure: Is it going to be open? Is it going to be not open?" she said of her office. But her building sent out a notification saying that "everything was under control," that there were "no imminent threats or anything," and then she saw the scores of NYPD officers in the neighborhood coming in on Tuesday morning, and she said she felt safer.

"It's back to somewhat normal, if that's what you want to call it," she said. Nevertheless, she added, "It's really scary, and it's terrifying, and I think you walk around with a little bit of fear of, 'It could have been you,' sadly."

Maimone-Medwick said her office goes through training and lockdown drills for active shooter scenarios, so everyone is prepared for such an incident. If she and her boss had come in on Monday, she speculated that they would have been subject to those procedures.

As someone who was in New York during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Maimone-Medwick said nothing will ever top the "heightened level of awareness" she felt that day. But the proximity of Monday night's shooting to her own office triggered nearly the same level, she said.

"When it hits home right here, you think about it a little more than you would — it takes more space in your brain," she said.

"I’m sure we’ll all … go back to normal and do what New Yorkers do best and move forward and help each other out," she added. "My heart goes out to everyone in Blackstone or in the surrounding buildings. It’s not something that you want to have to experience."

A Sense of Fear

Maimone-Medwick's close friend, Becca Hawley, came to visit her late Tuesday morning for lunch. As a native Connecticuter, Hawley, 38, said she came to New York City all the time before she moved to Australia — and she's almost never felt unsafe. This visit, however, was different.

"I usually feel safe here," she told The Mirror US. "My family’s kind of said, ‘Be careful when you come to the city now,’ but I didn’t feel that in the past couple of trips I’ve done here."

"But today, I’m being a little bit more cautious," she continued. "I’m just proceeding with a bit more caution, a bit more wariness than I might have had before."

After hearing about the shooting, Hawley said she was worried about Maimone-Medwick and her cousin, who she said works in the Blackstone Building but was away in Portugal at the time of the incident.

"It’s honestly really sad that things like this could happen in such a big [city] — what I’ve always called home — a safe city," she said, adding: "I'm just thankful nobody was around."

She said she was scared to meet Maimone-Medwick on Tuesday morning, fearing that another shooting could occur. "I’m not sure how that happened," she said of the Monday night incident.

Shock and Sadness in the Bangladeshi Community

Siddhartha Barua came to work on Tuesday feeling "disappointed." The 32-year-old immigrant, originally from Bangladesh, saw the active crime scene at 345 Park Ave. as he arrived for his waiting shift at Fresco by Scotto on the corner of Madison Avenue and 52nd Street and said sadness overcame him.

One of the victims of the horrific shooting was NYPD officer Didarul Islam, 36, a father of two with a third on the way. He was also an immigrant from Bangladesh.

The off-duty officer, who had been a member of the 47th precinct and a member of the NYPD for 3.5 years, was moonlighting as part of a private security detail at the time of the shooting, the NYPD said.

"Police Officer Didarul Islam represented the very best of our department," the NYPD said in a statement. "He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today."

A dignified transfer of the slain officer's body took place on Tuesday afternoon and saw Islam's body transferred from the medical examiner's office to a mosque in Parkchester in the Bronx.

NYPD and FDNY officials lined FDR Drive — which had been cleared for the solemn procession — and saluted him as he passed.

"I feel so bad, because also, one [of the people who died is] from my country. I feel so sad for him," Barua told The Mirror US. "I feel so sad for his family."

"Our community, our people, [are] very, very shocked at the news," he added. "Everybody’s sad."

He said news of the shooting and the fact that one of their own was a victim has many members of his community "scared to be walking on the street." The city, he said, doesn't feel safe.

But Barua, who lives in Queens, is doing his best to move forward. "This happened. What can I do? I have to go to work," he said.