(File Photo: Source for Photo: This image from surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press shows Shane Tamura outside a Manhattan office building on Monday, July 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo)
NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman killed a New York City police officer and three other people before taking his own life at a Manhattan office tower on Monday, officials said.
Law enforcement officials are working to unravel what took place and why this location may have been targeted in a city that recently announced it was on pace to have its fewest people hurt by gunfire of any year in recent decades.
Here are some things to know:
What happened?
A man exited a double-parked BMW with a rifle and then walked toward the skyscraper Monday evening, according to surveillance video. He opened fire on the NYPD officer as he entered the building before shooting a woman who tried to take cover and “spraying” the lobby with gunfire, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
The gunman shot a security guard taking cover behind a desk and another man in the lobby, Tisch said. The gunman took the elevator to the 33rd floor to a real estate management company and fatally shot one person on that floor before he killed himself, the commissioner said.
Officials believe the gunman used an AR-15-style assault rifle that was assembled using parts purchased by another man, who will be questioned by police, Tisch said.
What do we know about the gunman?
Police identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas. He worked in the surveillance department at the Horseshoe Las Vegas casino, the company confirmed. He was scheduled to work there last Sunday, but he never showed up to work, Tisch said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that investigators believe the gunman was trying to target the headquarters of the National Football League but accidentally entered the wrong set of elevator banks.
A three-page note found in Tamura’s wallet suggested 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 such as football, but it can only be diagnosed after someone has died.
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 the note, Tamura repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE, according to the police department.
No one answered the door at the address listed for Tamura in Las Vegas.
Who were the victims?
Didarul Islam, 36, was an immigrant from Bangladesh who served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years. Islam was married and had two young boys, Tisch said. His wife is pregnant with their third child.
He was in uniform, working in a decades-old police department program that lets private companies hire officers for security work.
Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, confirmed one of its employees, Wesley LePatner, was among those killed. A Yale graduate, LePatner was a real estate executive, according to Blackstone’s website, and spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs before joining the firm in 2014.
“She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond,” the firm said in a statement.
A labor union identified the security officer killed as Aland Etienne. His death “speaks to the sacrifice of security officers” who risk their lives to keep New Yorkers safe, Manny Pastreich, president of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said in a statement Tuesday. State records show Etienne was licensed as an unarmed security guard since 2017.
“Aland Etienne is a New York hero,” Pastreich said. “We will remember him as such.”
The Rudin family, which owns the building and Rudin Management, said in a statement that one of their employees was one of the shooting victims. They did not disclose the person’s name at the request of their family.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo to staff that a league employee was seriously injured in the attack and was now stable at a hospital. He said that “all of our employees are otherwise safe and accounted for.”
Where did the shooting happen?
The shooting took place in a busy area of midtown at 345 Park Avenue, a commercial office building on one the nation’s most recognized streets near Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s 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.
The building houses offices for companies including the NFL and real estate company Rudin, as well as finance companies KPMG and Blackstone. It also includes the consulate general of Ireland.
