Slain police officer is recalled as a selfless father and a hero
LANHAM, MD. — Eric Tyler said his father had asked him some time ago to wash his body when he died, as is the Muslim tradition. Tyler said he did that Friday and was glad he had the chance.
“It was a relief because I got to say I love him,” Tyler said. “I got to tell him meand my siblings were going to be better people.”
Tyler spoke Friday at the funeral for Prince George’s County police Cpl. Mujahid Ramzziddin, 51, after his father’s coffin rested in front of a Lanham mosque, draped with a green cloth.
Hundreds, including Gov. Larry Hogan, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer and police officers from across the region, gathered at the Diyanet Center of America to mourn the officer killed while helping a woman during a domestic dispute.
The ceremony included remembrances in speeches by people who knew Ramzziddin personally and professionally. “For many years, our brother woke up along with his fellow officers knowing this might be the last day they see their families,” said Diyanet’s imam, Ali Tos. “If this is not the definition of self-sacrifice, I don’t know what is.”
Tos was followed by Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski, who said Ramzziddin’s death was a “selfless act in a time of selfish violence.” Stawinski Ramzziddin called Ramzziddin a shahid, or Muslim martyr. “In sacrificing himself to save another, he died a consequential death,” Stawinski said.
Ramzziddin’s son said his father was relaxing in their Brandywine home on Wednesday morning when a neighbor needed help. “Without hesitation, he went out there to help that lady,” Tyler said. “Today, my dad is a hero.”
Ramzziddin, who was off-duty, was shot by the estranged husband of a neighbor who had requested his presence as she was collecting belongings and having the locks changed. Shortly after the officer went to the nearby home in his Brandywine neighborhood, the woman’s estranged husband, Glenn Tyndell, appeared to confront her. He shot Ramzziddin five times with a shotgun before fleeing in an SUV, police have said. Tyndell was confronted by two police officers who fatally shot him in a confrontation along Indian Head Highway.
Ramzziddin, a 14-year member of the Police Department, father of four and former Marine, was recalled as a dedicated public servant and a hero. The service ended with the Muslim funeral prayer, known as the Salat-al-Janazah, as Ramzziddin’s coffin was loaded in a silver hearse.
The officer was buried in Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland. Officers from special honor guards and officers in street uniforms solemnly saluted as they lined the route, on which residents also stood and quietly watched.
After the funeral prayer, at the cemetery, Ramzziddin was honored with a 21-gun salute and over the police radio his badge number was called out a final time— #2770.