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TimesLIVE
30-07-2025
- Sport
- TimesLIVE
NYC skyscraper shooter's ‘suicide note' blamed NFL for brain disease
The man who killed four people with an assault-style rifle inside a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper was carrying a "suicide note" blaming the National Football League (NFL) for a degenerative brain disease he claimed to have, New York City's police commissioner said on Tuesday. Police have identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, 27, a Las Vegas casino security officer and former high school football player with a documented history of mental illness. Tamura killed two security guards, one a city police officer on security detail, and a real estate executive and a business management associate before taking his own life on the 33rd floor of the Park Avenue skyscraper. The note, Tisch said, mentions a 2013 Frontline documentary featuring former NFL players who suffered from CTE, which has no known treatment and can be caused by repeated shaking of the brain associated with playing contact sports. Linked to aggression and dementia, the condition can only be diagnosed conclusively after death. "'Study my brain. I'm sorry,'" Tisch quoted Tamura as having written in the note. The commissioner said Tamura had fatally shot himself in the chest. The NFL has paid more than $1bn (R17.8bn) to settle concussion-related lawsuits with thousands of retired players after the deaths of several high-profile players. It has made changes to the sport to mitigate the risk of concussions. Tamura was never an NFL player, but he did play football during high school in California, according to school sports databases. A former coach of Tamura, Walter Roby, told Fox News Tamura was a "quiet, hard worker" and one of his "top offensive players" on the Granada Hills Charter School team. According to police, the first victim killed on Monday was Didarul Islam, 36, a New York police department (NYPD) officer who immigrated to the US from Bangladesh and was the father of two young boys. Islam's wife is pregnant with their third child. Assigned to the building's security detail, he was hailed by mayor Eric Adams as a "true blue" hero. A private security officer, identified by family as Aland Etienne, was fatally shot in the lobby moments after Islam, along with Wesley LePatner, a senior real estate executive for Blackstone, the private equity firm also headquartered in the tower. Several of her colleagues at Blackstone were injured, according to the company. An employee of the NFL, which has its headquarters in the building alongside offices of major financial firms, was gravely wounded in the attack, which was the deadliest mass shooting in New York City in a 25 years. The NFL worker was among several people shot in the lobby before Tamura, targeting the football league, used the wrong elevator bank and ended up in the 33rd-floor office suite of Rudin Management, a real estate company that owns the building, city officials said. "A suicide note found in his possession at the scene spoke of a possible motive in the shooting and may explain why he targeted NFL headquarters," police commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a video message posted on YouTube on Tuesday. In the note Tamura "claimed to be suffering from CTE, possibly from playing high school football, and he blamed the NFL," Tisch said. CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease. The last victim killed was Julia Hyman, a 2020 graduate of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, who was working as an associate at Rudin Management, according to her alma mater. The skyscraper was closed to workers on Tuesday, as were some neighbouring buildings, though much of Park Avenue hummed as usual. The Park Avenue shooting comes after last year's murder of a UnitedHealth executive outside a hotel located a few blocks away. Prosecutors said the man charged with that murder targeted his victim as a symbol of corporate greed. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a staff memo that New York-based league employees should plan to work remotely through until at least the end of next week. An NFL spokesperson did not respond to queries about the shooter's reported motives. Tamura appeared to have driven to Manhattan from Las Vegas over three days and to have acted alone, Tisch told reporters on Monday night. In her video message on Tuesday, the commissioner said NYPD detectives would be questioning an unnamed "associate" of Tamura who she said had purchased a component of the "AR-15-style assault rifle" he assembled for the killing spree. "This is part of a larger effort to trace Mr Tamura's steps from Las Vegas to New York City," Tisch said. Security video circulated by police showed a man walking from a double-parked car into the Park Avenue tower carrying what police identified as an M4 Carbine, a large semi-automatic rifle popular with civilian US gun enthusiasts that is modeled on a fully automatic rifle used by the US military. In Nevada, unlike New York, no permit is needed to buy a rifle or carry it openly in public. The security camera system flagged the gunman as a potential threat requiring immediate attention as he walked toward the building and seconds before he burst into the building's lobby, according to two former federal officials familiar with the systems. A widely circulated photo showed the Nevada permit issued to Tamura allowing him to legally carry a concealed handgun. He had recently worked as an overnight security guard at the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotel-casino, Tisch said. On two occasions, in 2022 and 2024, records show law enforcement officials detained Tamura for up to 72-hours under a "mental health crisis hold", which requires the detainee to be evaluated at a hospital, ABC News reported.
IOL News
09-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Government officials face investigations for failing to pay suppliers on time
The National Treasury wants action to be taken against government officials who fail to ensure suppliers are paid within the required 30 days. Image: File Heads of national and provincial government departments could face investigations and disciplinary action for failing to pay suppliers billions of rand within the required 30 days. The National Treasury has revealed that by the end of the 2024/25 financial year on March 31, provincial departments reported 140,364 invoices older than 30 days and not paid were valued at R17.8 billion, while nationally the figure stood at R381 million for 2,437 invoices. In addition, about 321,000 invoices valued at nearly R37.2bn were paid later than 30 days by provincial departments, and national departments also missed the 30-day payment deadlines for 143,245 invoices with a value of R6.4bn. The value of invoices older than 30 days that provincial departments failed to pay increased to R17.8bn from R10.6bn in 2023/24, while national departments also regressed to R381m in 2024/25 from R328m the previous financial year. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Provinces also paid R37.2bn after 30 days in 2024/25, which is up from R30.5bn in 2023/24. National government departments paid R6.4bn in invoices after 30 days in 2024/25 compared to R4.6bn in 2023/24. Treasury has noted that among the repeated common reasons provided by national and provincial departments for late and non-payment of invoices and which mostly align with its assessments are excessive administrative procedures, multiple approval layers and slow compliance processes that can delay payments and poor forecasting or cash management leading to shortages of funds available for timely payments. Other common reasons are missing or incorrect documentation from suppliers, including invoices or delivery receipts, which delays processing, and unethical practices resulting in deliberate delays or misappropriation of funds and manual systems commonly used to track invoices received from suppliers. The National Treasury wants accounting officers (heads of departments and directors-general) and chief financial officers to address the root causes of the late and/or non-payment of invoices to improve compliance with the requirements of Treasury regulations. 'Wilful or negligent failure by accounting officers who consistently breach the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Treasury regulations by paying suppliers late constitutes financial misconduct in terms of Section 83 of the PFMA. 'This must be investigated and disciplinary action must be taken against officials who fail to comply with the requirements to pay invoices within 30 days and who undermine the systems of internal control,' Treasury stated. In terms of the PFMA, financial misconduct is a ground for dismissal or suspension of, or other sanction against, any government official. According to the National Treasury, executive authorities (ministers, premiers, and MECs) play an important role in holding accounting officers accountable for the continued improvement in the culture and payment internal control environment of their respective departments. It has also urged that interventions be prioritised at the provincial level, as provinces continue to be the highest contributors to the statistics of late payments and unpaid invoices. The continued impact of the late or non-payment of invoices also contributes to the sustainability of small and medium enterprises, adding to unemployment, job creation, and inequality issues. Treasury said its efforts and those of the Public Service Commission, national departments of Small Business Development, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, and the Presidency can only be impactful if there is a willingness of leadership at the departmental level to make a difference.
