Gunman who killed 4 in NYC building blamed NFL for mental health issues
and was targeting its office
[July 30, 2025]
By JENNIFER PELTZ, CEDAR ATTANASIO, DAVE COLLINS and JOHN
SEEWER
NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman who killed four people inside a Manhattan
office tower blamed his mental health problems on the National Football
League and intended to target its headquarters but took the wrong
elevator, officials said Tuesday.
Shane Tamura, a Las Vegas casino security worker, was carrying a
handwritten note in his wallet that claimed he had chronic traumatic
encephalopathy, known at CTE, investigators said. He accused the league
of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports.
Tamura, 27, sprayed the skyscraper's lobby with bullets then shot
another person in a 33rd-floor office on Monday before he killed
himself, authorities said. Among the dead were a police officer, a
security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building.
An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.
The attacker's grievances with the NFL emerged as police worked to piece
together his background and motivations, and as loved ones began to
mourn the dead.
It's unclear whether Tamura showed symptoms of CTE, which can be
diagnosed only by examining a brain after death.
Tamura, who played high school football in California a decade ago but
never played in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said
without giving details. In the three-page note found on his body, he
accused the NFL of concealing the dangers to players’ brains for profit.
The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other
repeated head trauma common in contact sports such as football.
Detectives planned to question a man who supplied gun parts for the
AR-15-style rifle used in the attack, including the weapon’s lower
receiver, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a video statement.
She and members of the force also paid tribute to Officer Didarul Islam,
who was guarding the building on a paid security job when he was killed.
His flag-draped remains arrived late Tuesday afternoon at the Bronx
mosque preparing for his funeral.
A multifaith vigil
Mayor Eric Adams visited the scene and recalled working in the mailroom
of the building as a young man.
“To have to walk through and see the remnants of violence at that level,
tore at me,” he told mourners at an evening multifaith vigil for those
killed.
Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and other faith leaders
delivered prayers at the gathering held at a park about a dozen blocks
from where the shooting took place.
Both Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke of the need for stronger gun
laws. Hochul said guns designed to kill people on battlefields shouldn't
be in New York buildings.
“We cannot respond to senseless gun laws through vigils,” Adams said.
NFL boss calls shooting ‘unspeakable’
Tamura's note repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be
studied for CTE. He mentioned a PBS Frontline documentary about the
disease and referred to former NFL player Terry Long, who was diagnosed
with CTE, and the manner in which Long killed himself in 2005.
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This image from surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press
shows Shane Tamura outside a Manhattan office building on Monday,
July 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo)
The NFL long denied the link between football and CTE, but it
acknowledged the connection in 2016 testimony before Congress and
has paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle
concussion-related claims.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who works out of the offices, called
the shooting “an unspeakable act of violence,” saying he was deeply
grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded.
Goodell said in a memo to staff that the injured NFL employee was
hospitalized in stable condition.
The shooting happened at a skyscraper on Park Avenue, one of the
nation’s most recognized streets, just blocks from Grand Central
Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It is less than a 15-minute walk
from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed
last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over what he
saw as corporate greed.
Monday's attack drew a response from the White House, with President
Donald Trump posting that his “heart is with the families of the
four people who were killed” and that the officer "made the ultimate
sacrifice.”
Video shows the gunman stroll into the building
Tamura, who worked in the security department at the Horseshoe Las
Vegas but failed to show up for his shift Sunday, drove across the
country over the past few days and into New York City just before
the attack, Tisch said.
Surveillance video showed Tamura exit his BMW outside the building
at about 6:30 p.m. Monday wearing a button-down shirt and jacket
with the rifle at his side.
Once inside the lobby, he opened fire and killed Islam and Wesley
LePatner, a real estate executive at the investment firm Blackstone,
which occupies much of the building. Tamura then made his way toward
the elevator bank, shooting the NFL employee and an unarmed security
guard, Aland Etienne, who helped control access to the upper floors.
Tamura waited for the next elevator to arrive in the lobby, let a
woman walk safely out of the elevator, then rode it up to the
33rd-floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin
Management. He killed a worker for that company before killing
himself, officials said.
Friends and family mourn killed officer
Islam, 36, had served as a police officer in New York City for over
three years and was an immigrant from Bangladesh, Tisch said. He was
working a department-approved job, in his New York Police Department
uniform, when he was shot.
Islam leaves a pregnant wife and two children. Friends and family
stopped by their Bronx home on Tuesday to drop off food and pay
their respects.
“He was a very friendly guy and a hardworking guy,” said Tanjim
Talukdar, who knew him best from Friday prayers. “Whenever I see him
or he sees me, he says, ’How are you, my brother?'”
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