New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Tuesday {that a} gunman who killed 4 individuals at a Manhattan workplace constructing was making an attempt to focus on the headquarters of the NFL however took the improper elevator.
Investigators consider Shane Tamura was making an attempt to get to the NFL places of work after capturing a number of individuals within the constructing's foyer however by accident entered the improper 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 word discovered on his physique recommended 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 almost 20 years in the past.
“He appeared to have blamed the NFL,” Adams mentioned. “The NFL headquarters was situated within the constructing, and he mistakenly went up the improper elevator financial institution.”
The word 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 must be studied after he died, an individual accustomed to the matter instructed The Related Press.
It additionally particularly referenced the NFL, the particular person instructed 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 corporations, in addition to different tenants.
Blackstone confirmed one in every of its staff, Wesley LePatner, was amongst these killed.
“Phrases can't categorical the devastation we really feel,” the agency mentioned in an announcement. “Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone household and can be sorely missed. She was good, passionate, heat, beneficiant, and deeply revered inside our agency and past.”
An worker of the NFL was significantly injured within the capturing and was hospitalized in secure situation as of early Tuesday morning, league commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned in a memo to staff.
“One in every of our staff was significantly injured on this assault. He's at present within the hospital and in secure situation,” Goodell wrote within the memo, which was obtained by ESPN. “NFL workers are on the hospital and we're supporting his household. We consider that every one of our staff are in any other case secure and accounted for, and the constructing has almost been cleared.”
Goodell added within the memo that there could be “elevated safety presence” on the league's places of work “within the days and weeks to return.” He mentioned staff based mostly in New York ought to work remotely Tuesday or might take the time off.
“Each one in every of you is a valued member of the NFL household,” Goodell wrote. “We are going to get via 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 lady who tried to take cowl as he sprayed the foyer with gunfire.
The person then made his method 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 suitable 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 instructed to shelter in place on the time, based on ESPN's Jeff Darlington. The NFL places of work are on flooring 5 via eight of the 44-story constructing.
The person took the elevator to the thirty third ground places of work of the corporate that owned the constructing, Rudin Administration, and shot and killed one particular person on that ground. The person then shot himself, the commissioner mentioned. The constructing, 345 Park Avenue, additionally holds places of work of the monetary companies 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 3½ 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 final word sacrifice,” Tisch mentioned. “He died as he lived: a hero.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
