Gunman who killed 4 at Manhattan office building was targeting NFL headquarters, mayor says
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that a gunman who killed four people at a Manhattan office building 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. He had played football in high school in California nearly two decades ago.
'He seemed to have blamed the NFL,' the mayor said. "The NFL headquarters was located in the building, and he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank.'
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, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
It also specifically referenced the National Football League, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
A motive has not been determined but investigators were looking into, based on the note, whether he might've specifically targeted the building because it is home to the NFL's headquarters.
The shooting took place at a skyscraper that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone, one of the world's largest investment firms, as well as other tenants.
A message sent to Blackstone employees, and obtained by The Associated Press, said a staff member at the private equity firm was killed in Monday's shooting, but their identity was not immediately released.
Surveillance video showed the man 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.
'Our officer, he was slain in the entryway to the right as soon as he entered the building, the suspect entered the building,' Adams said in a TV interview. "He appeared to have first walked past the officer and then he turned to his right, and saw him and discharged several rounds.'
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.
The officer 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, 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.'
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CNN
31 minutes ago
- CNN
Inside 345 Park Avenue when a mass killer arrived
Crime Gun violenceFacebookTweetLink Follow Hundreds of people call 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan their work home. The skyscraper soars more than 600 feet and occupies the entire city block from 51st to 52nd Street in Midtown, stretching from Park to Lexington Avenue in one of the ritziest areas of the city. Trees along the south side would offer commuters some relief from the summer sun were the building not so large it casts a massive shadow all by itself. Yet there's an airiness around the building, with a large open plaza across from the century-old Romanesque grandeur of St. Bartholemew's Church leading to the light-filled lobby. It was across that plaza and into that lobby that a mass killer walked early Monday evening. The bustle of rush hour became alarm as witnesses heard two shots, the sound of glass shattering and then rapid fire. Nekeisha Lewis was nearby eating dinner with friends when she saw a man run from the building saying 'Help, help. I'm shot,' she told The Associated Press. The gunman had left his black BMW sedan double-parked on the street and strolled to the entrance, sunglasses on and holding an assault-style rifle in his right hand. His demeanor as captured by a security camera was 'quite brazen,' noted retired NYPD Capt. John Monaghan. 'It's clear from the picture he is not worried about getting caught,' Monaghan told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. 'This is a guy who went into that building knowing, intending to kill someone and probably knowing he was not going to come out alive.' As he entered the glistening 44-story tower that houses the headquarters of the National Football League as well as venerable investment and real estate firms, the man turned right, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday. He pulled the trigger on his rifle, shooting Didarul Islam in the back. Islam was in his dark blue NYPD uniform, working a sanctioned overtime shift to provide extra security. Surveillance footage showed he shot a woman behind a pillar, then sprayed the area with gunfire. Another man in the lobby was hit and managed to get out of the building. Glass panels at the entrance and a revolving door were shattered but the pieces remained in the frames Tuesday. The shooter then went toward the gates leading to the elevators, shooting and killing Aland Etienne, a building guard trying to set off an alarm behind his desk that would have deactivated the elevators. On a normal day, that guard would have checked in visitors before they could go through the turnstiles and to the upper floors, according to CNN's Coy Wire, who has been to the NFL offices in the building several times. Wire said his experience was the building was 'highly secured.' The gunman reached the elevators as one opened into the lobby, letting out a woman. Early investigations show he was targeting the NFL but the elevator he took does not serve the lower floors where its headquarters are. Instead, after allowing the woman to walk past him unharmed, he took the same elevator to the 33rd floor. Above the lobby, workers piled furniture against an office entrance, according to photographs posted on X. At 6:28 p.m., the NYPD's 911 call center started receiving alerts about an active shooter at 345 Park and sirens of emergency responders were soon blaring their way to the building. At about that time, Iris Christo Doulou saw people running outside from her office across East 52nd Street, telling CNN a helicopter was soon hovering overhead as well. She and her colleagues were told to stay inside. 'They made two announcements. We didn't know what was going on. If there was a bomb, how many shooters? We stayed away from the windows, so we went (to) the back of the office so that we're safe.' A column of a couple dozen police officers hustled into 345 Park, seen on video captured from a neighboring building. Outside, streets filled with office workers running with their hands up past a falafel truck and an entrance to the Downtown 6 train on Lexington Avenue. Uniformed police organized evacuations and warned a reporter trying to approach the building there was a shooter with a high-powered rifle inside. On the 33rd floor, at the office of Rudin Management, the gunman stepped out of the elevator and walked around, firing as he went. One woman was struck and killed. He then walked down a hallway and shot himself in the chest. As law enforcement poured into the building — so large it has its own ZIP code — the extent of the bloodshed became clear. Two men and two women killed, along with the shooter, in New York's worst gun attack in 25 years. Another man, an employee of the NFL, seriously injured in hospital. Security guard Etienne was remembered as 'a New York hero' by his union. 'Every time a security officer puts on their uniform, they put their lives on the line. Their contributions to our city are essential, though often unappreciated,' 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich said in a statement. Rudin Management, the owners of the building, said Etienne was 'beloved' there. They also confirmed a Rudin employee was killed. Julia Hyman was named as the employee by her alma mater Cornell University, from where she graduated in 2020. Cornell Dean and Professor Kate Walsh described her as 'an extraordinary student.' Blackstone, a company with offices in the building, said Wesley LePatner left a husband and children bereaved. She was a senior managing editor of Blackstone and a trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other activities out of work. The UJA-Federation of New York, where she was on the board of directors, said: 'Wesley was extraordinary in every way — personally, professionally, and philanthropically. An exceptional leader in the financial world, she brought thoughtfulness, vision, and compassion to everything she did.' As investigators started their painstaking search for answers, less than two miles north, at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, more officers gathered, but there to honor their colleague who was shot and killed. Didarul Islam's body, draped in the NYPD flag, was wheeled to an ambulance as his family watched. His brothers in blue stood silently at attention, hands on their hearts. Police Commissioner Tisch praised the father-of-two working to provide for his wife and family with another baby on the way. 'He put himself in harm's way, he made the ultimate sacrifice — shot in cold blood, wearing a uniform that stood for the promise that he made to this city. He died as he lived, a hero.' By Tuesday morning, the sounds of rush hour again were dominant in Midtown. No worker was allowed inside 345 Park; instead, the US and New York state flags fluttered at half-staff and a small memorial started to take shape. Flowers were tucked into a railing and a single yellow balloon was added, with a simple handwritten message: 'Love one another!'
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Feds charge Pat Tillman's brother with arson after San Jose post office fire
The brother of late NFL star and war hero Pat Tillman is facing a federal charge of malicious destruction by fire, less than two weeks after he rammed a car into a San Jose post office and set it on fire, prosecutors said Wednesday. Richard Tillman, 44, faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years, in addition to a $250,000 fine, if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. The charge stemmed from an incident in the early hours of July 20 at the Almaden Valley U.S. Post Office, where Tillman allegedly set fire to the building, partially destroying it. Federal prosecutors said Tillman purchased 'instalogs' and lighter fluid and then drove to the post office at Crown Boulevard in San Jose. Tillman placed the instalogs throughout his car and poured lighter fluid in the car, prosecutors said, then he backed the car into the building's lobby and set it ablaze. He spray painted the words 'Viva La Me' on the outside of the building but was unable to finish the job due to the intense heat of the fire, prosecutors said. Tillman told law enforcement officers that he sparked the fire to send a message to the U.S. government and that he used his phone to livestream the destruction on YouTube. Tillman, who In 2015 wrote a children's book series focused on kindness and empathy, had documented his apparent unraveling on dozens of videos he posted to social media in recent months, according to a Chronicle report. His most recent video, which has since been deleted, showed him sitting in a parked car talking about the 'spiritual realm,' ascension and making the planet evolve, while referring to himself in the third person and laughing in between bizarre statements. 'I'm not going to harm anyone physically, so there's nothing to worry about,' Tillman said. 'You guys will find out what I'm laughing about one day.' Tillman is scheduled to appear in district court on Aug. 6. Chronicle staff writer Anna Bauman contributed to this report
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
NYPD officer killed in Manhattan office shooting to be laid to rest
Islam's funeral will take place at Parkchester Jame Masjid Funeral Home in the Bronx. There will be separate viewings for men, women and close friends and family, followed by a prayer service. He will then be buried at a cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey. Islam was the gunman's first victim when he strode into the lobby of the Park Avenue office tower with an AR-15-style rifle at around 6:30 p.m. and immediately opened fire. Islam had been working a department-approved private security detail in uniform at the time. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up An immigrant from Bangladesh, Islam had worked his way up the nation's largest police force, serving as a school safety agent before becoming a patrol officer less than four years ago. Advertisement He was assigned to a precinct in the Bronx, the city borough where he lived with his wife and two young sons. The couple is also expecting the birth of their third child soon. 'He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm's way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,' Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. 'He died as he lived. A hero.' Advertisement Another victim, Julia Hyman, was buried following an emotional service Wednesday at a Manhattan synagogue. The 27-year-old Cornell University graduate had worked for Rudin Management, which owns the building. Funeral arrangements for the two other victims, security guard Aland Etienne and investment firm executive Wesley LePatner, have not been made public. Police have identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, a 27-year old former high school football player, who authorities say drove from his home in Las Vegas to Manhattan because he believed he had a brain disease linked to contact sports and accused the NFL of hiding the dangers of playing football. Police have said the casino worker had a history of mental illness, but they haven't elaborated other than to say they found psychiatric medication prescribed to him at his residence in Las Vegas.
