Woman, 27, killed in NYC skyscraper massacre seconds after stepping out of secure panic room where she was hiding

Daily Mail​

7 days ago

NYC skyscraper massacre victim Julia Hyman stepped out of a panic room seconds before she was shot dead by a crazed gunman.
The 27-year-old Rudin Management employee ran into a panic room hidden in the 33rd-floor bathroom as gunman Shane Tamura walked out of the elevator and began firing Monday.
Tamura, 27, reportedly fired through a glass door as he stepped out of the elevator, and kicked through the broken glass to get inside the offices before he began spraying bullets.
The panic room was fitted with a ballistic door, locking bolts, a hard-wired phone, and a live camera feed looking out on the hall that has helped officials reconstruct a timeline of events.
The killer fired at a female cleaner first, but missed, as reported by the The New York Post.
There was then a pause in shooting, officials said, and Hyman, for unknown reasons, stepped out of the panic room and was instantly shot by Tamura.
Wounded, Hyman crawled to a desk and reached out for a phone before collapsing.
People embrace each other following a funeral of Julia Hyman, who was shot as she crawled to a phone in the Rudin Management offices
Tamura then shot himself in the chest, killing himself.
Surveillance cameras showed that Tamura was visibly angry when he stepped out onto the 33rd floor and saw the Rudin Management logo.
Officials believe he wanted to target the NFL offices but went to the wrong floor.
The massacre began when Tamura stepped into the lobby of 345 Park Ave. with an assault rifle and immediately opened fire, killing NYPD officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was sat behind the front desk.
Security guard Aland Etienne, 46, then started running for the building's elevator lockdown panel but was shot as he did so.
Etienne still tried to reach the panel, crawling across the lobby, but collapsed before making it.
Tamura then shot NFL employee Craig Clementi, who was wounded but survived.
Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, 43, was shot next as she ran for cover after stepping out of the elevator.
Security guard Aland Etienne, 46, was shot dead as he ran for the building's elevator lockdown panel
Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, 43, was shot next as she ran for cover after stepping out of the elevator
Tamura then got on the elevator, after allowing a woman to exit it unharmed.
Tamura, a former high school football star, drove from Las Vegas to NYU with the intent of taking revenge on the NFL.
In a note found on his body, Tamura assailed the NFL's handling of concerns about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and the former high school football player claimed he himself had the degenerative brain disease, according to police.
Known as CTE, the condition has been linked to concussions and other head trauma, often sustained in sports in which players experience repeated head impacts.
At Tamura's Las Vegas studio apartment, investigators found a note with a different troubled message, police said Wednesday.
They said the note expressed a feeling that his parents were disappointed in him and included an apology to his mother.
Police said they also found a psychiatric medication, an epilepsy drug and an anti-inflammatory that had been prescribed to Tamura.
As investigators worked in both New York and Las Vegas, real estate firm worker Hyman, was buried after a packed, emotional Wednesday service at a Manhattan synagogue.
Her uncle, Rob Pittman, said the 27-year-old lived 'with wide open eyes' and 'courage and conviction.'
Hyman had worked since November at Rudin Management, which owns the building and has offices on the 33rd floor.
A 2020 graduate of Cornell University, she had been the captain of Riverdale Country School's soccer, swimming and lacrosse teams in her senior year, school officials said.
Relatives and colleagues of another victim, security guard Aland Etienne, remembered him at a gathering at his union's office.
The unarmed Etienne, who leaves a wife and two children, was shot as he manned the lobby security desk.
'We lost a hero,' younger brother Smith Etienne said. 'He didn't wear no cape. Had no fancy gear. He wore a security officer's uniform.'
Police were preparing for a funeral Thursday for Officer Didarul Islam. A member of the force for over three years, he was killed while working at a department-approved second job providing security for the building.
Funeral arrangements for Etienne and the fourth victim, investment firm executive Wesley LePatner, haven't been made public.