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New York Times
29-07-2025
- New York Times
Real Estate Associate Killed in Park Avenue Shooting Recalled for Her ‘Light'
Julia Hyman was working late at the real estate office on the 33rd floor of a Midtown tower, and the gunman was apparently lost. There are indications that the gunman had gone to the Park Avenue office building to settle a grudge with one of the other tenants, the National Football League. A note found in his wallet indicated that he held the N.F.L. responsible for what he believed was an injury to his brain. But after he unleashed a fusillade in the lobby, it appears he took the elevator to the wrong floor. There he encountered Ms. Hyman, 27, an associate at Rudin Management, a long-established real estate company where she was one of the newer employees. He fired into the offices at random, the police said, killing Ms. Hyman. Hers was the fourth life that the gunman, identified by the police as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas, took that day. He had already shot a police officer, an executive and a security guard. The fifth life was his own: He turned the gun on himself there on the 33rd floor. Ms. Hyman was a New Yorker, a graduate of the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, where she was not just a varsity athlete in soccer, swimming and lacrosse, but the captain of all three teams her senior year, according to a letter sent to the student body on Tuesday by Kari Ostrem, the head of school. At Riverdale, she was a leader of the peer mentoring program and received the school's prestigious Founders Award, presented to 'that young woman who best demonstrated outstanding ability, leadership and sportsmanship and the qualities of hard work, excellent attitude and responsibility to her teammates and school,' Ms. Ostrem's letter said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
29-07-2025
- New York Times
Manhattan Gunman Appeared to Target N.F.L. in Deadly Shooting
The gunman who opened fire yesterday evening in a Midtown Manhattan office building was carrying a note in his wallet that claimed he had brain trauma from playing football and that accused the N.F.L. of covering up the dangers of the game. New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, said today that the gunman, whom investigators identified as Shane Tamura, was targeting the N.F.L. headquarters when he stormed the building with an AR-15-style rifle. He killed three people — a police officer, a security guard and a financial executive — in the lobby, but he was unable to reach the N.F.L. offices because he entered the wrong elevator, Adams said. Instead, Tamura traveled to the building's 33rd floor, where he killed a fourth person, an associate at the company that owns the office building, before fatally shooting himself in the chest. It was the deadliest mass shooting in New York City in 25 years. The authorities spent today assembling a detailed picture of the gunman's life in recent years and of the cross-country drive that he took from his home in Las Vegas before the shooting. Law enforcement officials there had documented his mental health history. In his note, the gunman asked that his brain be examined for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., which can only be definitively diagnosed after death. Some people found to have C.T.E., including former N.F.L. players, are known to have experienced symptoms including impulsive behavior, depression and suicidal thoughts. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
29-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
In Violent Attack, Gunman Brings Issue of C.T.E. to N.F.L.'s Door
The Midtown Manhattan shooting involving Shane Tamura, a former high school football player, recalled previous cases of violent behavior — including murder and suicide — by other former players who believed they were suffering from brain trauma sustained on the field. It also echoed a case that had nothing to do with football: The murder of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare who was killed in Midtown Manhattan in December by a gunman who said in a manifesto that he saw the killing as a direct challenge to the health care industry's 'corruption' and 'power games.' After years of public relations crises over the sport's long-term cognitive and neurological toll on players, the N.F.L. seemed to largely move past the subject with a legal settlement that has paid out $1.5 billion since 2017. But the subject of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E., arrived at the league's front door on Monday in a terrifying way. The building that houses the league's headquarters became the scene of a shooting spree that left five people dead. It is not clear whether the gunman's claims of cognitive issues were related to playing football, or whether he had any connection to the N.F.L. Yet the police believe Mr. Tamura, a former high school football player, was seeking vengeance on the league. They cited a three-page note found in Mr. Tamura's wallet that referred to C.T.E., which has been associated with repeated hits to the head, and which can only be definitively diagnosed after death. The note, from which the police released excerpts, also inveighed against the N.F.L., which has offices at 345 Park Avenue, where the shooting took place, saying it had concealed the danger of the sport in favor of profits. The note made reference to Terry Long, a former N.F.L. player, and drinking 'a gallon of antifreeze' — the way Mr. Long killed himself in 2005. Mr. Tamura shot himself in the chest, rather than the head. 'Study my brain please,' the note said. 'I'm sorry.' It may take several weeks or more for the medical examiner's office to determine whether Mr. Tamura, 27, had C.T.E. And even if he is found to have had the disease, it will be difficult to know whether it was caused by head trauma sustained in football or elsewhere, or whether other conditions played a role in his actions. 'I would never draw a direct line between someone's brain pathology and any specific violent act because the majority of people who have C.T.E. never committed anything like this,' said Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. 'The majority of people with C.T.E. never engage in violent behavior at all,' he added. Mr. Tamura does not appear to have played football in college, let alone in the N.F.L. It is unclear whether he had any contact with the league before Monday. A league spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. 'The short answer is we all think this is undeserved to place this at the feet of the N.F.L., but it is sadly part of being the biggest league,' said Robert Boland, a professor at Seton Hall Law School who worked as a New York City prosecutor and an N.F.L. player agent. 'Football still exists and it is important that everyone involved in the game do what they can to make it safer.' For decades, the N.F.L. celebrated violence in its promotional films and broadcasts. Popular players had nicknames like the Assassin and the Purple People Eaters. That changed in the 1990s, when several players retired from the effects of too many head injuries. Then, in 2002, C.T.E. was discovered in the addled brain of the former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike 'Iron Man' Webster, who died at age 50. The disease had been found in boxers decades earlier. But football was the nation's most popular, lucrative and glamorous sport. For years after Mr. Webster's diagnosis, the league was dogged by accusations — from former players, fans and researchers — that it was covering up growing evidence that football was linked to brain disease, and that the league was not doing enough to shield players from the ravages of the game. The league's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury committee published numerous reports that downplayed the growing body of research linking head hits to brain damage. It wasn't until 2016, after the league's settlement was initially approved, that an N.F.L. executive acknowledged that there was a link between football and degenerative brain disorders like C.T.E. By that point, dozens of former players had been found to have C.T.E.; Dave Duerson and Junior Seau had shot themselves in the chest to preserve their brains so they could be studied. Former players pledged their brains to science, and the 2015 movie 'Concussion,' starring Will Smith, lionized the doctor who found the disease in Mr. Webster's brain. Nervous parents began steering their sons toward soccer, baseball and other sports. Worried that the pipeline of young players might dry up, the N.F.L., a $23 billion league guided by lawyers and marketing executives, tried to reframe the conversation and move past accusations that it sanctioned junk science. The league held clinics that taught young players and their mothers 'safe tackling' techniques, eliminated some dangerous plays from the game and, prominently, reached a landmark settlement with former players that included up to $4 million to families of deceased players found with C.T.E. The league's efforts largely worked. News of the disease popped up less frequently, though sometimes in disastrous ways. Aaron Hernandez, a tight end for the New England Patriots who was convicted of murder and killed himself in prison, was found to have a severe form of C.T.E. In 2021, Phillip Adams, a cornerback who played six seasons in the N.F.L., shot six people and himself in his hometown, Rock Hill, S.C. By that point, Mr. Adams had been out of the league for six years. His motivations remain unclear. In recent years, the league has promoted flag football as a safer alternative to the tackle version of the game, particularly for younger athletes. It has also eliminated some of the most dangerous plays and strengthened protocols to remove players who may have been concussed during games. Yet C.T.E. is still associated with repeated hits to the head and remains a vexing problem for all collision sports, including football, hockey and rugby. Juliet Macur contributed reporting.
New York Times
29-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Former Football Players With C.T.E. Have Turned to Violence
Shane Tamura, the man police identified as the gunman in a Midtown office tower shooting, is a former high school football player who left a note in his pocket blaming chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., for his problems. The building he targeted houses the headquarters of the National Football League. C.T.E., a degenerative disease associated with repeated hits to the head, was first identified almost a century ago in boxers, and it has since been found in soldiers and other athletes in full-contact sports like rugby and hockey. For the moment, though, it is unclear whether Mr. Tamura, 27, had the disease because it can definitively be diagnosed only after an autopsy. Some people later found to have C.T.E. are known to have experienced symptoms including impulsive behavior, depression and suicidal thoughts, and athletes have claimed the disease caused their neurological and cognitive problems. In a three-page note found in his wallet found by the police, Mr. Tamura referred to C.T.E. as the cause of his problems and asked for his brain to be studied, law enforcement sources said. The note, from which the police released excerpts, also inveighed against the N.F.L., which has offices at 345 Park Avenue, where the shooting took place, saying it had concealed the danger of the sport in favor of profits. The note also referred to Terry Long, the former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman who died in 2005 after drinking antifreeze. The police said Mr. Tamura carried an AR-15-style rifle into the skyscraper and began firing, killing a New York City police officer and three other people, and critically wounding a fifth person before shooting himself in the chest, rather than the head. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Los Angeles Times
29-07-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
New York gunman was a former L.A. County high school football player possibly targeting NFL headquarters
Investigators are looking into whether a Las Vegas man who went on a deadly shooting spree in Manhattan Monday was targeting the National Football League after it emerged that the gunman was a former Los Angeles high school football player with a documented mental health history. New York Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that the gunman, identified by law enforcement officials as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, was trying to target the N.F.L but took the wrong elevator. Law enforcement officials have said that the gunman marched into a 44-story office tower on Park Avenue that is the headquarters of the National Football League and investment firm Blackstone, at around 6:25 pm Monday carrying an M4 assault rifle in his right hand. He immediately opened fire in the lobby, shooting first an NYPD officer, then a woman who took cover behind a pillar and a security guard behind the security desk. After spraying more gunfire across the lobby, the gunman got into an elevator and went to the 33rd floor, which houses the Rudin Management real estate firm. He then walked around the floor, firing more rounds and shooting and killing another person, before walking down a hallway and fatally shooting himself in the chest. 'Mr. Tamura has a documented mental health history,' New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday night at a news conference, citing Las Vegas law enforcement. 'His motives are still under investigation, and we are working to understand why he targeted this particular location.' Tamura, who was a celebrated varsity high school player at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita and Granada Hills Charter in the San Fernando Valley, had a suicide note in his back pocket alleging that he suffered from CTE, a brain disease linked to head trauma, CNN reported, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation. In the short three-page note, he appeared to blame football for his problems, referencing former Pittsburgh Steelers player Terry Long, who died by suicide after drinking antifreeze in 2005, and expressing grievances with the N.F.L.. 'Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,' the gunman allegedly wrote. 'You can't go against the NFL, they'll squash you,' the note said, according to the source. 'Study my brain please I'm sorry Tell Rick I'm sorry for everything,' N.F.L. commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly said an NFL employee was seriously injured in the attack. Tamura played football at Golden Valley High School in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita for three years before transferring to Granada Hills Charter School for his senior year in 2015. Dan Kelley, Golden Valley coach, said only that he remembered Tamura as 'a good athlete.' In his senior year at Granada Hills, the 5-foot-7, 140-pound player had 126 carries, 600 rushing yards and five touchdowns, according to MaxPreps. He also won several 'player of the game' awards. He graduated in 2016, the site said. The initial investigation indicates that Tamura had traveled from New York to Las Vegas, driving a BMW cross country through Colorado, Nebraska and New Jersey over the weekend. Law enforcement said that officers searched the vehicle the gunman double parked on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets and found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver ammunition and magazines, a backpack and medication prescribed to Tamura. No explosives were inside. The slain police officer, Didarul Islam, 36, had been on the job for four years, according to Tisch. He was married with two young sons and his wife was pregnant with their third child. The Associated Press and Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this report.
