New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Tuesday {that a} gunman who killed 4 individuals at a Manhattan workplace constructing was attempting to focus on the headquarters of the NFL however took the incorrect elevator.
Investigators consider Shane Tamura was attempting to get to the NFL places of work after capturing a number of individuals within the constructing’s foyer however by accident entered the incorrect set of elevator banks, Adams mentioned in interviews Tuesday.
4 individuals, together with an off-duty New York Metropolis police officer, had been killed. Police mentioned Tamura had a historical past of psychological sickness, and a rambling notice discovered on his physique instructed he had a grievance in opposition to the NFL over an unsubstantiated declare that he suffered from power traumatic encephalopathy. He had performed soccer in highschool in California practically twenty years in the past.
“He appeared to have blamed the NFL,” Adams mentioned. “The NFL headquarters was positioned within the constructing, and he mistakenly went up the incorrect elevator financial institution.”
The notice claimed he had been affected by CTE — the degenerative mind illness that has been linked to concussions and different repeated head trauma widespread involved sports activities like soccer — and mentioned his mind ought to be studied after he died, an individual conversant in the matter advised The Related Press.
It additionally particularly referenced the NFL, the individual advised the AP.
The capturing passed off at a skyscraper that’s house to the headquarters of each the NFL and Blackstone, one of many world’s largest funding companies, in addition to different tenants.
A message despatched to Blackstone staff, and obtained by the AP, mentioned a employees member on the non-public fairness agency was killed in Monday’s capturing, however their identification was not instantly launched.
An worker of the NFL was critically injured within the capturing and was hospitalized in steady situation as of early Tuesday morning, league commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned in a memo to staff.
“Considered one of our staff was critically injured on this assault. He’s at present within the hospital and in steady situation,” Goodell wrote within the memo, which was obtained by ESPN. “NFL employees are on the hospital and we’re supporting his household. We consider that every one of our staff are in any other case protected and accounted for, and the constructing has practically been cleared.”
Goodell added within the memo that there can be “elevated safety presence” on the league’s places of work “within the days and weeks to come back.” He mentioned staff primarily based in New York ought to work remotely Tuesday or may take the time off.
“Each one in every of you is a valued member of the NFL household,” Goodell wrote. “We’ll get by means of this collectively.”
Surveillance video confirmed Tamura exiting a double-parked BMW simply earlier than 6:30 p.m. carrying an M4 rifle, then marching throughout a public plaza into the constructing. Then he began firing, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned, killing a police officer working a company safety element after which hitting a girl who tried to take cowl as he sprayed the foyer with gunfire.
The person then made his technique to the elevator financial institution and shot a guard at a safety desk and shot one other man within the foyer, the commissioner mentioned.
“Our officer, he was slain within the entryway to the fitting as quickly as he entered the constructing, the suspect entered the constructing,” Adams mentioned in a TV interview. “He appeared to have first walked previous the officer after which he turned to his proper, and noticed him and discharged a number of rounds.”
NFL staff had been advised to shelter in place on the time, in keeping with ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. The NFL places of work are on flooring 5 by means of eight of the 44-story constructing.
The person took the elevator to the thirty third flooring places of work of the corporate that owned the constructing, Rudin Administration, and shot and killed one individual on that flooring. The person then shot himself, the commissioner mentioned. The constructing, 345 Park Avenue, additionally holds places of work of the monetary providers agency KPMG.
The officer killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York Metropolis for 3 1/2 years, Tisch mentioned at a information convention.
“He was doing the job that we requested him to do. He put himself in hurt’s manner. He made the last word sacrifice,” Tisch mentioned. “He died as he lived. A hero.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.