
Police say suspect drove from Las Vegas for days and ended his rampage in a real estate office
Tisch said that Tamura's car was recorded passing through Colorado on Saturday local time, then Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday, before he arrived in New York City on Monday afternoon local time.
He drove to Park Avenue, where he double parked his BMW just outside the skyscraper. He then marched inside with an AR-15-style rifle and began to spray the lobby with gunfire, peeking behind a security desk to shoot one of his victims and firing on another who tried to take cover behind a pillar.
He then walked to the lift bank, waited for a lift to take him upstairs, letting a woman exit and walk safely past him before he got on and rode it to the 33rd floor.
Once there, he went to the office of Rudin Management, a real estate firm, where he shot someone and then fatally shot himself in the chest.
The police department said Tamura was from Las Vegas. Police vehicles blocked the entrances to the gated community where he was believed to have lived, and a street elsewhere in the neighbourhood was closed off with police tape and traffic cones.
Public records indicate that Tamura spent at least part of his youth in California.
Mason Thomas said he had played high school football with Tamura in Granada Hills, a neighbourhood of Los Angeles. But he said they had lost contact with each other years ago.
Nevertheless, he said it was 'mind-blowing' to see an old high school teammate in the news for a fatal shooting spree.
He said he remembered Tamura as a standout running back who was funny, popular, and agreeable.
'There was nothing from the little I knew about him that would have indicated anything like this,' Thomas said.
'At practice, there were never any issues I can remember. He never had issues with anybody.'
In Santa Clarita, a city north of Los Angeles, Debi Hatfield, said she remembered the Tamura family well.
They had been neighbours for a decade, and Shane and his brother played with her children and went to primary school with her daughter, she said.
'They were typical kids,' Hatfield said, looking across the quiet cul-de-sac at the family's former home, as crickets chirped in the cool night air.
She said she remembered Shane 'as just a little kid following his older brother around. It's really shocking.'
In recent years, Tamura had received traffic citations in Nevada and was charged with criminal trespass, records show. It was not immediately clear what had led to the trespassing charge.
Records show that a person with the same name as Tamura held a work card issued by the state board that regulates security guards, private investigators, and similar professionals in Nevada from December 2019 to December 2024. The work card did not authorise the person to carry a firearm.
It was not clear why Tamura was in New York City or what had motivated him to open fire inside the building, which is home to the offices of several high-powered companies, including investment giant Blackstone, the NFL, and accounting and financial advisory firm KPMG.
It was the second high profile shooting in midtown Manhattan in less than a year.
Last December, Luigi Mangione travelled to New York City from out of town and staged a targeted attack on a healthcare executive, Brian Thompson, in midtown, prosecutors say.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Liam Stack, Joseph Goldstein and Amy Julia Harris
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES

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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Gunman's brain to be tested for CTE after deadly NFL building shooting
Investigators found a three-page handwritten note in Tamura's wallet that referenced CTE, according to a person familiar with the law enforcement investigation. 'Study my brain please,' the note read. According to a copy of the note obtained by the New York Post, the gunman also apparently mentioned by name Boston University, a leader in CTE research, and prominent researchers, including Ann McKee and Bennet Omalu. New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) did not specify whether Tamura's brain will be tested for CTE, saying during an interview with CNN: 'The medical examiner here in the city, he will make that determination on the next steps in collaboration with the district attorney in Manhattan County'. CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. The brains of many high-profile athletes have been donated to the UNITE Brain Bank and studied at Boston University's CTE Centre. Its CTE diagnoses include Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL tight end who was serving a life sentence for murder when he died by suicide in 2017 and was diagnosed with stage 3 CTE, and Phillip Adams, a 32-year-old former NFL player who killed six people and himself in 2021 and was found to have stage 2 CTE. Chris Nowinski, the CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with the BU centre and helps operate the brain bank, said he didn't anticipate Tamura's brain making its way to BU's researchers unless requested by New York's medical examiner's office. Unlike medical examiners in many other cities, the New York City office has doctors qualified to make a CTE diagnosis, he said. 'They have neuropathologists on their team who understand CTE,' Nowinski said in a phone interview. 'They can do the study for CTE and all other known brain abnormalities themselves. Whether they ask anyone to review their findings, I don't know. But I have full confidence in them.' Nowinski said he was confident that CTE would be among the pathologies looked for by the New York officials. In a more routine case, CTE might not be on the checklist. The diagnostic process involves first fixing a brain sample in a formalin solution to harden. Researchers then stain the sample to highlight deposits of tau protein, an indicator of CTE. 'I'm sure they'll probably do the same kind of work-up we do,' Nowinski said. 'We don't just look for CTE. We look for all brain abnormalities – could see genetic disorders, tumours, all sorts of things.' He cautioned that even if Tamura is determined to have CTE, that wouldn't necessarily explain his actions in the Manhattan high-rise and certainly wouldn't rule out other contributing factors such as mental illness, genetic disorders or drug use. Experts in the field don't expect quick answers. The process for studying the brain and diagnosing CTE can take two or more weeks and wouldn't necessarily be made public until the medical examiner's office and investigators choose to release the findings. In the case of Adams, a CTE diagnosis wasn't made public for eight months. Most high-profile CTE cases have been linked to NFL players, and researchers don't know how prevalent CTE might be in athletes who only played through high school. One 2023 study from Boston University focused on athletes who died before the age of 30. It included the brains of 45 players who didn't play football beyond high school; 14 of them – 31% – were found to have CTE. (Researchers note the brains were donated by families who sought a neuropathologic examination and might have suspected CTE.) Tamura played football in high school but not college or the NFL. The note found in his wallet cited Terry Long, a former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman who committed suicide in 2005. The Allegheny County coroner's office first ruled Long died of meningitis, but a revised death certificate filed one month later listed the manner of Long's death as suicide from drinking antifreeze. The medical examiner's office called Long's football-related brain injuries a contributing factor to his death but said he did not die as a direct result of them, the Associated Press reported in January 2006. The note found in Tamura's wallet said the 'league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximise profits' and 'failed us'. Adams said in broadcast interviews Tuesday that the shooter was targeting the NFL. 'From our preliminary investigation, he took the wrong elevator bank up to the NFL headquarters,' Adams told CBS. 'Instead, it took him to Rudin Management. And that is where he carried out additional shootings and took the lives of additional employees.' The NFL has closed its offices through at least the end of next week. Commissioner Roger Goodell instructed employees to work remotely until then. Goodell participated in a virtual town hall for NFL employees Wednesday.


Techday NZ
3 days ago
- Techday NZ
Cyber scams soar in New Zealand as AI & crypto drive threats
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1News
4 days ago
- 1News
New York gunman who killed four was trying to get to NFL offices
A gunman who killed four people at a Manhattan office building before killing himself claimed in a note to have a brain disease linked to contact sports and was trying to target the National Football League's headquarters but took the wrong elevator, officials said Wednesday. Investigators believe Shane Tamura, a Las Vegas casino worker, was trying to get up to the NFL offices after shooting several people in the skyscraper's lobby on Tuesay, but entered the wrong elevator bank, Mayor Eric Adams said in interviews. Four people were killed, including an off-duty New York City police officer, Didarul Islam. The ambulance carrying the body of Didarul Islam exits NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Hospital. (Source: Associated Press) The gunman blamed the NFL ADVERTISEMENT Tamura, who played high school football in California nearly two decades ago but never in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said. In a three-page handwritten note found in his wallet, he claimed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy and 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, but it can only be diagnosed after someone has died. In the note, Tamura repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE, according to the police department. It also referenced former NFL player Terry Long, who was diagnosed with CTE, and the manner in which Long killed himself in 2005. 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. Members of the NYPD Crime Unit examine a door with bullet holes at the scene of the previous day's deadly shooting. (Source: Associated Press) NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called the shooting "an unspeakable act of violence in our building," saying he was deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded and the officer who gave his life to protect others. Goodell said in a memo to staff that a league employee was seriously injured in the attack and was hospitalised in stable condition. The shooting happened along Park Avenue, one the nation's most recognised streets, and just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Centre. It's also less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over corporate greed. ADVERTISEMENT US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he knows that area of Manhattan well. "My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD Officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice," Trump posted on social media. Video showed the gunman stroll into the building Investigators found that Tamura, who worked security at the Horseshoe Las Vegas, drove across the country the past few days and into New York City just before the shooting, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. This undated image provided by Las Vegas Dept. of Motor Vehicle shows Shane Tamura. (Source: Associated Press) Surveillance video showed the gunman getting out of a BMW Tuesday and strolling across a plaza in a button-down shirt and jacket with a rifle at his side before he entered the building, which also has offices for the investment firm Blackstone and other companies. It was closed Wednesday except to investigators. Once inside, he sprayed the lobby with gunfire, killing Islam, who was off-police duty and working a corporate security detail, and hitting a woman who tried to take cover, Tisch said. He then made his way to the elevator bank, shooting a guard at a security desk and another man in the lobby, she said. "He appeared to have first walked past the officer and then he turned to his right, and saw him and discharged several rounds," Adams said in a TV interview. ADVERTISEMENT Tamura took an elevator to the 33rd-floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed one person there before killing himself, the commissioner said. Blackstone confirmed that one of its employees, real estate executive Wesley LePatner, was among those killed. Security officer Aland Etienne also died, according to a local labour union. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including UK set to recognise Palestine, fire closes another Auckland supermarket, and Australia's plan to clamp down on YouTube access. (Source: 1News) The off-duty officer was from Bangladesh Islam, 36, had served as a police officer in New York City for three-and-a-half years and was an immigrant from Bangladesh, Tisch said at a news conference. His body was draped in the New York Police Department flag as it was moved from the hospital to an ambulance, with fellow officers standing at attention. "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."