The gunman who killed four people at a New York office block reportedly wrote ‘study my brain’ in a suicide note in his pocket – and a second note found at his home bore a similar message.
Shane Devon Tamura, 27, had a note on him which ‘alluded to that he felt he had CTE, a known brain injury for those who participate in contact sports’, said Mayor Eric Adams this morning.
Tamura was targeting the NFL headquarters but took the wrong elevator by mistake, according to law enforcement.
‘He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury,’ Mr Adams told CBS ‘This Morning’ in an interview.
Tamura brought the carnage to an end not long after it began on Monday evening by shooting himself in the chest on the 33rd floor of the Park Avenue skyscraper. The building houses NFL headquarters.
Investigators found a note written over three pages in Tamura’s back pocket and a source told CNN that it read: ‘Study my brain please I’m sorry Tell Rick I’m sorry for everything.’
‘Rick’ is believed to be the same person who bought a lower receiver for Tamura and worked with him at a security job, a law enforcement official told the news outlet. Investigators have interviewed him.
Authorities searching Tamura’s home in Las Vegas found a second note that was similar in tone to the one in his pocket, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
Mr Adams said the preliminary investigation shows Tamura took the wrong elevator bank and, instead of getting to NFL headquarters, ended up at Rudin Management, which owns the building at 345 Park Avenue.
‘That is where he carried out additional shootings and took the lives of additional employees,’ the mayor said on CBS.
Tamura had a licence to own guns in Nevada and had ‘documented mental health history’, Mr Adams said.
The gunman walked into the office building armed with a rifle and fired shots in the lobby and an upper floor, ‘immediately’ opening fire on an NYPD officer who was assigned to the building as ‘paid detail’.
Of those shot in the attack, four were killed, one was seriously injured, and a further four people suffered minor injuries while trying to flee.
Pedestrians outside the building ran for cover after NYPD warned of an active shooter, with people in the offices piling chairs and other furniture in front of doors as they hid in their offices, the BBC reports.
The NYPD paid tribute to Officer Islam, saying he represented ‘the very best of our department’.
The force said: ‘He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today.
‘We join in prayer during this time of incomprehensible pain. We will forever honor his legacy.’
Tamura was seen on CCTV strolling into the building while casually carrying the large rifle in one hand.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said he fatally shot Officer Islam in the lobby, before aiming at a woman who hid behind a pillar.
While walking through the lobby he ‘sprayed’ gunfire which hit multiple people including a security guard hiding behind a desk and another man.
An executive at private equity firm Blackstone, which had its offices in the building, has been confirmed as one of the dead. The other two people killed are yet to be identified.
Commissioner Tisch said Tamura waited for an elevator, but when a woman stepped off he let her pass.
He went up to the 33rd floor, where Ruden Building Management is located, and opened fire again, killing one person before shooting himself in the chest in a hallway.
Tamura travelled from Las Vegas to the east coast cross-country over the last few days, stopping in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and New Jersey.
He arrived in New York shortly before the shooting, and it’s not yet known whether he had ties to the city, the building, or to Ruden Building Management.
Police searched his car, which he double-parked in front of the building, and found a revolver with multiple magazine rounds.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was ‘briefed on the tragic shooting that took place in Manhattan, a place that I know and love’.
‘I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence,’ he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
‘My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD Officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice.’
The New York City medical examiner’s office said it will conduct an autopsy on Tamura and examine his brain.
It is the deadliest shooting in New York in 25 years.
