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Manhattan shooter identified as Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas: What we know about the gunman

Manhattan shooter identified as Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas: What we know about the gunman

Daily Mail​5 days ago
The man who unleashed chaos inside a Midtown Manhattan office tower on Monday afternoon has been identified as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old licensed private investigator from Las Vegas who once dreamed of a life in football.
Authorities say Tamura arrived in Manhattan by car on Monday and walked into 345 Park Avenue in the heart of Midtown Manhattan with a concealed weapon permit issued by the Las Vegas Sheriff's Department.
What followed was a terrifying and targeted shooting spree that police believe was premeditated and likely suicidal.
'It appears that he knew it would be his last stand,' said CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller, a former NYPD deputy commissioner.
'He fully intended to shoot his way through the lobby and make his way to that target - whatever that might have been.'
The building, home to major corporate tenants including the NFL's headquarters, became the scene of a frantic lockdown as gunshots echoed through the corridors and heavily armed police teams swarmed the floors.
While the league's offices are housed in the tower, sources confirmed Tamura was not on the NFL floor and that no known connection has yet been established between the shooter and the sports organization.
Still, his past raises haunting questions.
Tamura grew up in Hawaii, where he attended high school and was immersed in a life dominated by sports.
He was a promising football player in junior varsity, obsessed with the game and once on a path that suggested a future defined by discipline and teamwork.
But in the years after he left the field, Tamura's life became murkier.
He eventually relocated to Las Vegas, where he earned a private investigator's license and obtained a concealed carry permit to carry firearms, both legally granted through Nevada's Sheriff's Department.
The latter part of Tamura's life is largely invisible to the public.
Investigators are now urgently combing through his car, phone, and computer in search of answers to try and work out what stressors or perceived injustices led him to carry out the deadly shooting.
'Police want to know what brought him to that building, who or what the target was, and what the grievance or motive behind it might have been,' Miller explained.
'These cases often involve people who experience a downfall and begin to blame others - bosses, institutions, society at large.
'Then they decide to get even with everybody, even though in most cases, the problem is usually them,' Miller said.
Investigators are also poring over Tamura's social media footprint, hoping it might offer clues - manifestos, threats, cryptic posts, or grievances that might have foreshadowed his violent act.
As of now, police have not said whether Tamura had any personal or professional connection to the building or its tenants, but they are leaving no stone unturned.
Authorities say there's no immediate evidence of any accomplices, but they are working methodically to verify that no other individual helped plan or facilitate his movements across state lines or into the high-security office tower.
Miller emphasized that shooters like Tamura often spiral quietly, building a world of resentment that no one sees until it erupts in tragedy.
'They blame their problems on other people and entities,' he said. 'Then they decide to get even - with the world, with everyone - even though the problem usually begins and ends with themselves.'
No motive has yet been officially released, but the scene suggests Tamura had a plan that ended with his own death.
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Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt
Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt

Daily Mail​

time7 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt

Were there a Guinness Book of Records entry for shoplifting, then surely Bianca Mirica would be in it. How much do you think she stole from branches of Boots across London – always Boots, always perfumes and cosmetics – in just six months between December 2023 and May last year? Answer: £120,000. At least that's what Mirica, 20, a Romanian mother of three, admitted to after she was finally caught, Southwark Crown Court heard this week. But Boots suspect the real figure, police sources told us, was a staggering £300,000 (£299,000 to be exact). You can buy a detached house in some parts of the country for less. One of the 30 thieving expeditions she was convicted of epitomised her modus operandi. The date was March 7, 2024, when she entered Boots in Hornchurch, East London, with a long, flowing skirt with hidden pockets, a 'spotter' to look out for – and distract – security guards, and her own key to open locked cabinets containing the most expensive brands – Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, for example. Value of items stolen: £16,867. Which must be something of a record in itself for the sheer number of beauty products stripped from a single store in one go. But the Hornchurch branch was not her only target. On her way there, she stopped off in Camden, not far from her home in neighbouring Haringey, where she helped herself to make-up and toiletries worth £7,729.93. March 7 was one of five separate occasions during her frenzied crime spree when multiple Boots outlets were hit on the same day. But there is a much bigger story behind Mirica, just one person, remember, working for one Romanian gang, operating in one city. The field is infinitely more crowded, with gangs, mostly run by Romanian organised crime networks, using women to plunder shelves on the High Street. They are part of a shoplifting epidemic which cost the retail industry £2.2billion in 2023 and 2024, an all-time record that equates to more than 55,000 incidents per day. Shocking but not surprising in the circumstances, because under-resourced police forces – the Met alone is set to lose 1,700 staff to help offset a multi-million budget shortfall in the coming year – are unable or unwilling to respond to such incidents. And in outlets up and down the country, it is standard practice for staff not to intervene either, for safety reasons, which means shoplifting has been effectively decriminalised in all but name. Hence the proliferation of serial perpetrators like Mirica. In her 'busiest' month, May last year, she turned up at 11 Boots outlets including the following: May 15, The Strand, (£335.95 of goods stolen); May 19, Haringey (£3,200); May 22, Kilburn (£691.33): May 24, Baker Street (£627.93); May 25, Islington High Street (£2,000); May 29, Regent Street (£4,386). Many native Romanians arrived in the UK after 2014 when restrictions on their right to work – following the country's admission to the EU in 2007 – were lifted. The vast majority contribute to the economy, working in sectors such as hospitality, agriculture and healthcare where it is sometimes hard to recruit British staff. Mirica, who came here around five years ago, was not one of them. She is from a Roma community in Valcea County, a region situated around 100 miles north-west of the capital Bucharest, where she was twice caught shoplifting – 'attempted aggravated theft' is the legal terminology in Romania – on a visit back to the country in 2023, our inquiries have established. Romanian law allows the prosecution of offences punishable by up to seven years in jail to be waived if the cost of proceeding to trial exceeds the gravity of the wrongdoing. The upshot was that Mirica, who is believed to have incurred a fine, was allowed to return to the UK to begin, or at least continue, her crime spree against Boots. The Roma have, rightly or wrongly, been linked to widespread criminality. And the issue of early marriage and early motherhood is an indisputable reality of life for Roma women, with 46 per cent marrying before the age of 18, the European Parliament was told in May, and one in three becoming pregnant in adolescence. Mirica herself is a product of that culture. The only reason she moved, or was perhaps sent, to the UK, it seems, was for the sole purpose of committing crime – and her children, if history tells us anything, would have been groomed to follow in her footsteps. Examples, after all, of Romanian kids being dispatched to rob and steal are not hard to find. Indeed, the annual crime survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) highlighted the 'grooming of underage children to undertake theft'. Mirica's oldest child is three, which means she was pregnant for the first time when she was 16. Her second is aged 18 months. Their welfare was the subject of 'intervention, by police and children's social services', a pre-sentence report revealed, after concerns were expressed about their living conditions and Mirica's associations with organised crime. Both are now being cared for by friends and relatives in Romania. Her third child? Mirica appeared with her baby – born on June 20 – in a video-link from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where she was held on remand (in the mother and baby unit) before being jailed for 32 months, a prison term reflecting the fact that the judge had little sympathy with her, kids or no kids. Her criminal career provides a glimpse into the burden individuals like Mirica place on overstretched social services, the welfare system – and ultimately on taxpayers. Mirica claimed, through an interpreter, that the things she stole were for personal use – yes, the entire haul, enough to open her own shop. However, the carefully planned raids, including having a key to open cabinets ('universal' keys are available on the internet) pointed to a very different version of events. In fact, Mirica is understood to have operated with around four or five other girls, one of whom is just 16, according to court documents obtained by the Mail. She has three previous convictions, including one for stealing meat and dairy products from Sainsbury's. These resulted in several referral orders, which supposedly involved a programme of activities to address her offending behaviour, as well as a sentence of 16 weeks' detention, suspended for 12 months with a requirement to complete 80 hours of unpaid work. She finished only 40 and was sent nine enforcement letters for 'unacceptable absences'. Her attitude is confirmation, if any were needed, that soft-touch sentencing is failing. 'Your expressions of remorse should be treated with caution and may not be considered sincere,' the judge told her. 'I do not doubt you are sorry you are now in custody. But I very much doubt you are sorry you committed these offences.' Unsurprisingly, back in Haringey, where Mirica lived in a rented mid-terraced household of ever-changing men and women, just a short walk from Tottenham Hotspur football stadium, she is not remembered fondly. 'Mirica walked around with such arrogance in designer gear,' said neighbour James Mulqueen, 53. 'I am sure she was stealing it all.' Expensive brands, including £300 Dsquared2 jeans, could be regularly seen hanging out of a top floor bedroom window. Police were often called to the property, along with the council, because of anti-social behaviour, 'shouting and screaming' at all hours and children running amok. Up to six women were staying in the house at one time. 'Different men would arrive in flash cars, day and night,' Mr Mulqueen said. 'They were a nightmare to live next to. They had no respect for anything or anyone.' Another resident, a pensioner added: 'They were horrible, especially her. They used to shout abuse if I asked them to be quiet.' The circumstances surrounding Mirica's arrest are unclear. However, CCTV from stores around the country, especially where organised crime is suspected of being involved in shoplifting, is fed into an intelligence-sharing central hub at the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), based within the City of London Police, where facial recognition software is used to identify offenders. 'The majority of the organised crime gangs involved in shoplifting are Romanians,' said David McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector in the Met, who co-founded My Local Bobby, a respected private security firm which provides cover for a number of stores, as well as 24-hour patrols in residential neighbourhoods in London and Essex. 'There is only one reason they come here – to commit crime. They see the UK as rich pickings.' Sister company TM Eye, effectively a civilian CID made up of highly experienced retired detectives like Mr McKelvey, mount private prosecutions against shoplifters apprehended by My Local Bobby guards, who wear red caps and vests. The organisation has undertaken 1,200 such cases over the past 15 years. Most are against individuals – for example, drug addicts – but around 10 per cent have been against gangs, nearly all Romanian. 'They operate in the same way,' says Mr McKelvey. 'A man in an expensive vehicle like a Range Rover drops off the team, usually women, who target a particular area, before picking them up at the end of the day and moving on to the next area.' There are no end of examples. In August last year, three women were jailed for a £40,000 crime spree targeting make-up and beauty counters in East Anglia. A few months earlier, a Romanian shoplifting ring operating in York, including two women, were given prison sentences for stealing £1,282 of fragrances from Browns department store. Beauty products are coveted because of their small size, high value and the ease with which they can be resold. 'Retail crime is spiralling out of control,' said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC. 'Every day, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive.' Satisfaction with the police is low, with 61 per cent of respondents who took part in the BRC's annual crime survey describing their response as 'poor' or 'very poor'. The largely untold story of the shoplifting epidemic, though, is that it is pushing up the price of everyday items. 'We are all paying for it, that's the point,' said Mr McKelvey. 'The retailers are still making big profits because they work out what their bottom line losses are due to shoplifting – 'shrinkage' they call it – and increase prices.' So, Bianca Mirica is effectively stealing from everyone.

British man linked to ‘one of London's most dangerous crime gangs' arrested
British man linked to ‘one of London's most dangerous crime gangs' arrested

Telegraph

time7 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

British man linked to ‘one of London's most dangerous crime gangs' arrested

A British man accused of being an assassin has been arrested in the Costa del Sol. The suspect, who was reported by officers to be on the run and having links with 'one of London's most dangerous crime gangs', was found to have pistols, ammunition and a silencer in his crashed Nissan Qashqai following his arrest. He is alleged to have harassed two Dutch women after getting them to buy him cocaine in an incident at a petrol station and crashed his car, according to the local paper Diario Sur. The man, who is wanted for 'several murders', attempted to flee as officers arrived at the scene, in an area known as Riviera, between La Cala de Mijas and Marbella, it was reported by The Sun. A spokesperson for Mijas police said: 'A British man has been arrested in Riviera who had a warrant out for him ordering his remand in prison for murder.' He added: 'While conducting surveillance work in La Cala de Mijas, officers were called yesterday to deal with an altercation at a petrol station in the area. 'Upon arrival, they interviewed a customer at the station who stated that a foreign man who had been harassing her had already driven away from the scene. 'Shortly afterwards, a call was received alerting us to an accident on Orfebres Street in Riviera. 'Upon arrival the officers found a damaged vehicle that matched the one involved in the incident at the petrol station.' The images of the wreckage showed two pistols, ammunition, a silencer, a notebook with names and addresses, along with a book titled 'Practical Buddhism and the Search for Self' within the vehicle. Diario Sur reported on Saturday: 'An investigation remains open to clarify his links with organised crime.' It comes as two alleged members of a 'professional' robbery gang were arrested in Marbella following raids on around nine tourist flats.

Ambulance chiefs spend £675k on body armour for paramedics after surge in violent attacks on crews
Ambulance chiefs spend £675k on body armour for paramedics after surge in violent attacks on crews

The Sun

time7 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Ambulance chiefs spend £675k on body armour for paramedics after surge in violent attacks on crews

AMBULANCE chiefs are spending £675,000 on stab-proof body armour for paramedics after a rise in violent attacks. It is part of a £3.3million package to protect London Ambulance Service crews. They have seen an 11.9 increase in acts of violence or aggression, from 2,087 incidents in 2023 to 2,337 last year — an average of seven a day. That includes 11 attacks with 'edged weapons' such as knives. LAS bosses have signed a three-year contract for anti-knife gear from Cooneen Defence, which specialises in military combat and protection clothing. The ambulance service's chief executive Jason Killens said: 'Violence towards our crews is utterly appalling and unacceptable. "The impact can be devastating, especially if staff need time off the road to recover. 'Thankfully stabbings and knife injuries are rare for our frontline crews, but we provide all our staff with body armour so we can keep them safe if they feel threatened.' Last year medic Dean Hawkins risked his life to restrain a Tube passenger wielding a knife in Harrow, North West London. In 2022 a paramedic had a knife pushed to his back outside his vehicle at University College Hospital, central London. Last month two LAS members told how a patient they were treating kicked through their windscreen and threw bricks as they tried to help him in Rotherhithe, South East London. The LAS is also spending money on body-worn cameras and improved CCTV. Man in his 20s dies as car ploughs into London pub in horror early hours crash 1

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