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New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that a gunman who killed four people at a Manhattan office building a day earlier was trying to target the headquarters of the National Football League but took the wrong elevator.
Investigators believe Shane Tamura was trying to get to the NFL offices after shooting several people in the building’s lobby but accidentally entered the wrong set of elevator banks, Adams said in interviews on Tuesday.
Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed. Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested he had a grievance against the NFL over an unsubstantiated claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He had played football in high school in California nearly two decades ago.
The note claimed he had been suffering from CTE — the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports like football — and said his brain should be studied after he died, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
It also specifically referenced the National Football League, the person said.
The rampage happened at the end of the workday in the same part of Manhattan where the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down outside a hotel late last year.
Surveillance video showed the man Monday exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6:30 p.m. carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building. Then, he started firing, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, killing a police officer working a corporate security detail and then hitting a woman who tried to take cover as he sprayed the lobby with gunfire.
The man then made his way to the elevator bank and shot a guard at a security desk and shot another man in the lobby, the commissioner said.
The man took the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owned the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed one person on that floor. The man then shot himself, the commissioner said. The building, 345 Park Avenue, also holds offices of the financial services firm KPMG.
Slain officer an immigrant from Bangladesh
The officer killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3½ years, Tisch said at a news conference.
“He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Tisch said.
“He died as he lived. A hero.”
One man was seriously wounded and remains in critical condition, Mayor Eric Adams said. Four others got minor injuries attempting to flee.
Officers found a rifle case, a revolver, magazines and ammunition in Tamura’s car, Tisch said. They also found medication that belonged to Tamura, she said.
She said an initial investigation shows his vehicle travelled across the country, passing through Colorado on July 26, then Nebraska and Iowa on July 27. The car was in Columbia, New Jersey, as recently as 4:24 p.m. Monday. He drove into New York City shortly thereafter, she said.
Rudin is one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in New York City. The company dates back to 1925 and is still managed by members of the Rudin family.
Tisch said there were no indications so far that Tamura had prior connections to the real estate industry or to the city.
No one answered the door at the address listed for Tamura in Las Vegas.
Islam, the officer who was killed, leaves behind two young boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child, Tisch said.
Witnesses heard ‘rapid fire’
Local TV footage showed lines of people evacuating the office building with their hands above their heads in the hours after the killings.
Nekeisha Lewis was eating dinner with friends on the plaza when she heard gunfire.
“It felt like it was a quick two shots and then it was rapid fire,” she told The Associated Press.
Windows shattered and a man ran from the building saying, “Help, help. I’m shot.” Lewis said.
Jessica Chen told ABC News she was watching a presentation with dozens of other people on the second floor when she “heard multiple shots go off in quick succession from the first floor.”
She and others ran into a conference room and barricaded tables against the door.
“We were honestly really, really scared,” she said, adding that she texted her parents to tell them that she loves them.
