NEW YORK – 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 Tuesday.
Investigators believe Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, was trying to get to the NFL offices in the building Monday after shooting several people in the lobby but entered the wrong elevator banks, Mayor Eric Adams said in interviews.
Four people were killed, including an off-duty New York City police officer, Didarul Islam.
Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested that he had a grievance against the NFL over a claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports like football, but it can only be diagnosed after someone has died.
Tamura’s note said his brain should be studied after he died, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The note also specifically referenced the NFL, one of them said.
Tamura played high school football in California nearly two decades ago, but he never played in the NFL.
“He seemed to have blamed the NFL,” the mayor told WPIX-TV. “The NFL headquarters was located in the building, and he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called it an “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 hospitalized in stable condition.
The shooting happened along Park Avenue, one the nation’s most recognized streets, and just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It’s also less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over corporate greed.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he knows that area of Manhattan well.
“I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence. 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.
