Five, including police officer, killed in New York office shooting
The officer who was killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years.
'He died as he lived. A hero,' police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. He was married with two young boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child, she said.
Police identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, and said he killed himself. He had a 'documented mental health history', but the motive is still unknown, Tisch said.
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'We are working to understand why he targeted this particular location,' Tisch said.
Another man was seriously injured and remains in critical condition, Mayor Eric Adams said.
Adams said officials are still 'unravelling' what took place. 'Five innocent people were shot', along with the perpetrator, he said.
Surveillance video showed a man exiting a double-parked BMW and carrying an M4 rifle before he walked toward the building. He immediately opened fire on the NYPD officer as he entered the building and shot a woman who tried to take cover and then began 'spraying' the lobby with gunfire, Tisch said.
Authorities responded to reports of a shooting at an office building that houses some of the US' top financial firms and the National Football League. (Source: Reuters)
The man then made his way to the elevator bank and shot a security guard who was taking cover behind a security desk and shot another man in the lobby, the commissioner said.
The man took the elevator to the 33rd floor to a real estate management company and one person was shot and killed on the floor. The man then walks down a hallway and shot himself, the commissioner said.
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Officers found a rifle case, a revolver, magazines and ammunition in his car, Tisch said.
The Fire Department of New York said emergency crews were called to the Park Avenue office building around 6.30pm for a report of someone shot. The building houses some of the country's top financial firms and the National Football League.
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.
Local TV footage showed lines of people evacuating the office building with their hands above their heads. The building includes offices of Blackstone and the consulate general of Ireland.
Tisch says she believes there were two officers working paid detail assignments in different parts of the building - part of a program where companies can hire NYPD officers in uniform to provide security.
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Some finance workers at an office building down the block were picking up dinner at a corner eatery when they heard a loud noise and saw people running.
'It was like a crowd panic,' said Anna Smith, who joined the workers pouring back into the finance office building. They remained there for about two hours before being told they could leave.
The building where the shooting happened is in a busy area of midtown, located a short walk north from Grand Central Terminal and about a block east of St Patrick's Cathedral.
The city's emergency management alert system warned of traffic delays, road closures and disruptions to public transportation in the area.
Through late July, New York City is on pace to have its fewest murders and fewest people hurt by gunfire than any year in recent decades.
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The New Zealand Police Association rejects most of the coroner's findings into the 2016 death of Shargin Stephens in Rotorua. The entire process has been shambolic, with multiple coroners involved over more than nine years, Police Association president Chris Cahill says. "The ruling of Coroner Michael Robb, released this morning, shows a complete lack of understanding of how both the human mind and memory work in volatile situations, and the level of risk an offender such as Mr Stephens presents," Mr Cahill says. "It is well established that if you have multiple witnesses to an event, there will be multiple differing accounts of that event. The prolonged nature of this coronial process has only amplified the existence of differing accounts." Mr Cahill says the coroner's criticism of Officer L05's recall of events fails to acknowledge that in critical, dangerous situations people under threat see only the direct threat posed, not what is around or behind them. "It is common for witnesses in such situations to later attempt to account for the facts brought to their attention despite not being aware of them at the time. We are concerned today's report has not taken this into consideration," he says. "Given the veracity of research into dealing with scenarios such as that in Rotorua in July 2016, it would seem vital that coroners were skilled in the science when they preside over such critical reviews." Mr Cahill also questions the inference that junior officers should not have access to M4 rifles. "This shows an absolute lack of understanding of the risks regularly presented to the public - risks that officers are required to respond to in protection of their communities." Mr Stephens presented a very real and imminent threat to officers and members of the public, Mr Cahill says, and less-lethal options had failed to remove that threat. "The association believes Officer L05 was justified in taking the actions he did. Looking through a distorted lens nine years later cannot change that fact."
Otago Daily Times
07-08-2025
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Shooting death by police 'preventable': Coroner
By Guyon Espiner of RNZ Police tactics in the fatal shooting of Shargin Stephens showed a disregard for the right to life, according to a scathing coroner's report. A probationary officer in "a heightened emotional state" pushed his way past experienced officers and got "unnecessarily and dangerously close" to Stephens, who was holding a slasher after smashing up a police car, and shot him twice with an M4 rifle. Coroner Michael Robb ruled the death, in July 2016, was preventable and his 207-page report painted a picture of police chaos on the day, including a lack of leadership and a failure to de-escalate the situation. He said frontline officers were inclined to treat safety of their own and the public as the exclusive considerations, and that "concern for the individual they are dealing with and their right to life is at best muted in the New Zealand police risk assessment process". 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"Mr Stephens was polite and compliant, but significantly frustrated by the police actions," the coroner said, and "felt that the police were deliberately playing games with him". One morning, he snapped and smashed up a police car with a garden slasher, but never presented a physical threat to officers or the public, the coroner said. The case had a long and turbulent history. The IPCA initially said the police shooting was justified, and the late-night bail checks were "reasonable" and played no role in his death. But in 2021, RNZ obtained documents detailing the police investigation into the homicide, and found multiple inconsistencies between what officers told the IPCA and what they had told their own investigating officers. In an unprecedented move, the IPCA re-opened its investigation after RNZ's reporting and its second report, in 2022, said the bail checks were "oppressive" and may have been a factor in the killing. Now the coroner has ruled that Stephens did not need to die that day. "I have concluded that Mr Stephens' death was preventable," his finding said. "The officers in attendance did not have a mindset or adequate training to enable them to slow and de-escalate the incident in a way that could have prevented the police taking Mr Stephens' life." Police officer's 'consistently inaccurate' statements The coroner found that the officer who shot him - who had several years in the army, but just one year with police - was an unreliable witness, who claimed to have seen multiple things that did not happen. The officer, who has permanent name suppression and is referred to by his codename L05, was sharply censured in the coroner's report. "L05's original pre-prepared statement, his police interview statement, the statement he filed in the Coroners Court in advance of the inquest, and the evidence he gave before me at inquest was not consistent with the events." The coroner dismantled the officer's entire rationale for arming up with a Bushmaster M4 rifle and shooting Stephens, saying his evidence was "consistently inaccurate" and that he "alleged matters that did not happen". Relying on witness accounts, CCTV and taser footage, the coroner found there were "multiple matters alleged by L05 that simply did not occur". These included wrongly claiming that he had witnessed two police attempts to taser Stephens before he was shot and falsely claiming that Stephens was advancing on another officer to hack him with the slasher. "His account incorporated a detailed narrative of actions carried out by Mr Stephens that he claimed he watched from close proximity, which he said was the reason he went to the boot of his vehicle, and loaded and armed himself with an M4 rifle," the coroner said. "I have found that he did not see Mr Stephens act in the way he described." He said it was possible L05's "concern over his own situation" led him to search for a narrative that could support a claim of self-defence under section 48 of the Crimes Act. The coroner said that, during the inquest, L05 maintained he had calmly played a support role in the confrontation, but that wasn't true. "Through his arming himself with the M4 rifle and his physical actions, he seemed to have taken it upon himself, despite being the most junior officer, to take control of the police engagement with Mr Stephens." L05 advanced on Stephens - moving from about 15-20 metres away to just 6-7 metres in the final seconds of the confrontation - a distance the coroner described as "unnecessarily and inappropriately" close. The coroner said L05's risk assessment was flawed, because he claimed Stephens was moving with purpose towards a Rotorua shopping centre, when in fact he was disorientated and wandering aimlessly. Critically, in the 12 seconds L05 advanced on Stephens, there was no person in imminent danger. "Stephens was not advancing towards anyone, he was not heading towards the shopping centre, he had stopped and was facing towards L05 throughout the time L05 continued to advance on him with the rifle." He said L05's actions reflected his limited experience and "a level of panic", but also revealed the police attitude to the use of lethal force. The inquiry found police were wrong to claim Stephens was high on meth and a danger to the public. "When interviewed, officers characterised Mr Stephens' behaviour as being high on methamphetamine and violent, with descriptors of him including that he was a goal-driven individual," the coroner said. "My review of the evidence has led me to conclude that he was not 'goal driven', he was not high on methamphetamine and, through to the moment he was shot, he was not physically violent towards any person, nor was this his intention or goal on the day he was shot." Family's message to officer who fired In a statement, the Stephens whānau thanked the coroner, their legal team and supporters, including the Wallace family, who lost their son Steven to a police shooting in 2000. The whānau made a "call for accountability and human dignity in police conduct", and also reached out to the shooter, L05. "We send you and your whānau compassion and peace," the whānau said. "We are now enmeshed as two peoples, forever connected by the loss of two lives - one lost in innocence, the other in death. "We hope your path to healing becomes gentler, and that this tragedy may serve as a threshold toward a future filled with possibility and healthy growth." Police defensive, unwilling to learn Although the shooting was nearly a decade ago, the coroner's report was damning for the police today, because it said they had not learned from it. The coroner highlighted flaws in the police approach, including a failure to cordon and contain Stephens, and a lack of leadership and control, which allowed the most junior officer to take the lead role. "He took it upon himself to immediately try to engage directly with Mr Stephens, pushing his way in front of other officers," the coroner said. "He was in an overly elevated emotional state to the point where he was perceiving the events in a significantly inaccurate way. He received no directive, guidance or leadership from any senior officer either at that time." The coroner found "a defensiveness by officers giving evidence, an unwillingness to accept any criticism of their actions" and "limited willingness to reflect on anything that could have been done differently now". He is particularly critical of the shooter L05, who - when giving evidence eight years after the shooting - gave "no indication that he had reflected on anything that he might have done differently". Coroner Robb said police still had the attitude that, if they could claim an offender presented a threat, then that justified shooting them. "It further highlights my concern that the current New Zealand police risk assessment encourages a justification approach, whereby being able to articulate a possible anticipated risk can be relied on to then justify a lethal force action." When conducting their own homicide investigation into the shooting, police waited a month before interviewing L05. There was none of the scrutiny that would normally occur in a homicide investigation, where evidence such as CCTV and taser footage would be analysed, and inconsistencies in witness accounts challenged. "There was no challenge of L05's account at any juncture," he said. "There was no indication of any 'heavy debrief' of his or any other officer's risk assessments within the police review processes." In a statement, Bay of Plenty district commander Superintendent Tim Anderson said inquiries had found the officer involved was legally justified in shooting Stephens in self-defence to protect both himself and members of the public. "We acknowledge these events have a profound effect, not only on families, but also on our staff," Anderson said. "There has been significant scrutiny of this event over a period of nearly 10 years and we will always take any opportunity to improve how we respond, to keep people safe. Shooting people is an absolute last resort decision that our staff constantly hope they never have to make. "I want to commend the professionalism of our staff who responded to this incident. "Police officers are committed to protecting life and upholding the law. They are trained and prepared to respond to critical incidents, and our priority is to resolve an incident peacefully and without the need to use force by exhausting all reasonable, tactical alternatives. "When an officer uses force to protect themselves or others, it is a tactical decision made after risk-assessing the threat, the exposure to harm being faced, the necessity to act and the best response considering all those factors." What happens next Although Coroner Robb referred his report back to the IPCA and the police, he stopped short of saying that L05 should face prosecution. He said that, at the moment Stephens was shot, he had moved diagonally closer to L05, with the slasher raised in his right hand. "In that moment, L05 may have reasonably felt in danger," the coroner said, adding that would likely fall within a claim of self-defence under the Crimes Act. "For that reason, I do not consider it appropriate to refer that aspect of L05's actions back to the police for further investigation." Among the coroner's recommendations were that police wear body cameras. He also said probationary officers should be trained to "avoid asserting charge or control" over more senior officers, and should not access M4 rifles, except as a matter of last resort. He also recommended more training on de-escalation and what constitutes an imminent threat "to emphasise that preservation of life is a police responsibility", along with protection of their colleagues and the public. Anderson said police would consider the recommendations, but many of the them had already been implemented, after the two IPCA reports and internal reviews of the incident over the last nine years. Bail management practices were overhauled and all of the recommendations made by the IPCA in 2022 were implemented. "We also note the coroner's recommendation that police wear body-worn cameras (BWC), which our commissioner has signalled, as one of the few law-enforcement agencies without BWC, is a priority to deliver for frontline staff. "Work is under way to explore options to do this, while also considering the legal, privacy and operational issues this will raise."
