The gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office building before killing himself claimed that brain disease was related to sports and was trying to target the National Football League (NFL) headquarters, but was trying to get the wrong lift, officials said.
Investigators believe that Las Vegas’ Shane Tamra shot several people dead in the lobby of the 345 Park Avenue building on Monday, but is about to go to the NFL office after entering the wrong elevator, Mayor Eric Adams said.
Four people have been killed, including New York City police officer Didalur Islam.
Tamura, who played high school football in California nearly 20 years ago, had never had a history of mental illness in the NFL, police said.
A three-page note on his wallet suggested he filed a complaint against the NFL over allegations that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Degenerative brain disease is associated with concussions and other repeated head injuries, common in contact sports such as soccer, but can only be diagnosed after someone dies.
In the memo, Tamura repeatedly apologizes, but according to the police station, his brain asked him to study the brain for CTE.
The memo also referenced former NFL player Terry Long, who was diagnosed with CTE, and how Long committed suicide in 2005.
The memo accused the NFL of hiding dangers in players’ brains for profit.
The NFL has long denied the link between football and CTE, but has admitted its connection in its pre-Congress 2016 testimony and paid $1.4 billion (1.2 billion euros) to retirees to settle concussion-related claims.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called the shooting “an indescribable act of violence in our buildings,” and said he was deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded and the officers who gave life to protect others.
Goodell said in a note to staff that a league employee was seriously injured in the attack and was hospitalized in a stable condition.
Cross Country Drive
Investigators have discovered that Tamra had driven around the country for the past few days and headed for New York City just before the shooting, police Commissioner Jessica Tish said.
Surveillance video showed him leaving the BMW double-parked with a rifle on Monday evening and across the plaza to the skyscrapers on Park Avenue, home to investment company Blackstone and other companies.
It was closed on Tuesday, except for investigators.
He then blew a gunshot into the lobby, killed an unemployed NYPD officer and attacked a woman who tried to hide, Tish said.
He then headed to the elevator bank and shot the guard with another man in the security desk and lobby, the commissioner said.
“It appears he first passed the officers, then he turned to the right, looked at him and let him go out of hospital several rounds,” Adams said in a television interview.
Tamura took an elevator to the third floor office of the company that owns Rudin Management, which owns the building, and shot and killed one person on the floor.
He then shot himself and killed him, the commissioner said.
Blackstone confirmed that one of its employees, real estate executive Wesley Lepatner, is among the people who were killed. Security officer Aland Etienne was also killed, according to a local labor union.
The police officer who was murdered was immigrants from Bangladesh.
Didarul Islam, 36, has been a New York City police officer for over three years and has been an immigrant from Bangladesh, Tisch said at a press conference.
His body was covered in a flag from the New York Police Station, as he was moved from the hospital to an ambulance, and fellow officers were paying attention.
“He was doing the work we asked him to do. He harmed himself. He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Tish said.
“He died while alive: Hero.”