Adams rips Mamdani for skipping NYPD funerals until his mayoral campaign launch

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has ripped his Democratic mayoral opponent Zohran Mamdani for attending the funeral of slain NYPD officer Didarul Islam last week – but skipping services for other fallen officers killed during his time in the state Assembly – and never publicly acknowledging their deaths.

Adams, a former NYPD captain, suggested Mamdani’s presence at Islam’s funeral was politically motivated and inconsistent with his prior stance on policing – which included calls to defund the agency and slamming it as racist. Mamdani has since walked back those statements.

“We lost officers before he was running for mayor. Where was he? Did he feel those officers deserve to be lifted up as he lifted up now Officer Islam during the election? We need to ask, where was he?” Adams told reporters at City Hall on Monday, per the New York Post. 

“You should lift up officers when you’re not running for mayor. He could have lifted them up when he was an assemblyman. He could have done it over the years when he was in Albany.”

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Mamdani, a socialist who has served in the New York State Assembly since January, did not attend the funerals of six of NYPD’s finest who died in the line of duty from 2022 through March of this year, Adams said. 

“Not one time has [Mamdani] said something in response to a police officer who’s been shot or killed,” Adams said, pointing out the 2022 killing of officers Wilbert Mora, Jason Rivera. “We cannot find one tweet that he made, or one comment that he made when that happened.”

As well as Mora and Rivera, the NYPD’s Jonathan Diller, Troy D. Patterson, Lawrence Bromm and crossing guard Krystyna Naprawa were all killed during that time period. 

Mamdani cut short his recent trip to Uganda and returned early to attend Islam’s funeral. He first went directly to the family’s home and stayed with them for two hours, per reports. 

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Mamdani’s team for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

Islam was gunned down by alleged shooter Shane Tamura of Las Vegas last week inside the lobby of office tower at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Tamura is alleged to have killed three other people in the rampage before turning the gun on himself. 

Mamdani initially took to X to share his condolences on the passing of Islam.

“I’m heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in Midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer in critical condition in my thoughts. Grateful for all of our first responders on the ground,” Mamdani posted to X.

But the Ugandan-born lawmaker has been a vocal critic of the NYPD in the past. 

In a June 8, 2020, post, Mamdani wrote, “No, we want to defund the police,” and he wrote that “queer liberation means defund the police” in a Nov. 5, 2020, post.

“We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your deal with [New York City mayor] uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police,” he posted on June 28, 2020.

In December of the same year, he also called for it to be “dismantled.”

“All this misery. All for money. In the last budget, the City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half. They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence,” he wrote.

However, he sang a different tune during a mayoral debate in his primary.

“I will not defund the police. I will work with the police because I believe the police have a critical role to play in public service, public safety,” he said.

On his campaign website, he calls for the creation of a Department of Public Safety.

“Police have a critical role to play. But right now, we’re relying on them to deal with the failures of our social safety net—which prevents them from doing their actual jobs. Through this new city agency and whole-of-government approach, community safety will be prioritized like never before in NYC,” the website states.

Fox News’ Cameron Arcand contributed to this report.