The 27-year-old former running back for two Southland high schools who police say killed four people at the NFL headquarters building in Manhattan before killing himself had a suicide note in his pocket expressing grievances with the league and claiming he suffered from CTE, according to multiple media reports Tuesday.
Authorities say Shane Tamura was seen carrying a long gun while entering the Park Avenue skyscraper that houses the headquarters of the National Football League and the alternative investment management company Blackstone late Monday afternoon.
Police said Tamura opened fire in the lobby and then went to the 33rd floor and continued firing, killing four people including an off-duty New York Police Department officer who was working security at the building. He then shot himself.
The policeman was identified as Officer Didarul Islam, an immigrant from Bangladesh. Islam was with the department for 3 1/2-yeas, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a Monday night news conference.
“He loved this city, and everyone we spoke with stated he was a person of faith. He was a true-blue New Yorker, not only in the uniform he wore, but in the spirit and energy of loving this city,” Adams said.
Adams added that Tamura was trying to target NFL headquarters but took the wrong elevator. Blackstone said one of its employees, Wesley LePatner, was among those killed.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said a league employee was “seriously injured” in the attack.
Tamura had lived in Las Vegas in recent years. He rushed for 616 yards and five touchdowns on 126 carries and caught 25 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns as senior for Granada Hills Charter High School in 2015, according to the high school sports website MaxPreps.
Tamura rushed for 774 yards and 11 touchdowns on 139 carries for Golden Valley of Santa Clarita as a junior in 2014, according to MaxPreps.
According to CNN, police said Tamura had a “documented mental health history,” but authorities were still investigating the motive for the attack.
Citing police, the cable news network reported that the note in Tamura’s pocket requested that his brain be studied for effects of CTE, the brain disease that’s been linked to head trauma in former football players and others, and reportedly said: “You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you.”
President Donald Trump weighed in on the tragedy Tuesday.
“I have been briefed on the tragic shooting that took place in Manhattan, a place that I know and love,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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. God Bless the New York Police Department, and God Bless New York!”
Walter Roby, one of Tamura’s former coaches at Granada Hills, said he was “just blown away right now” at the news of the shooting, NBC News reported. He described Tamura as a skilled running back and “a great player” who was “real elusive, real agile. He came in, worked hard, kept his nose down. He was a quiet kid, well-mannered, very coachable. Whatever needed to be done, he would do.”
Former classmate Caleb Clarke told NBC News that Tamura “never came off violent. You never would have thought violence was something you’d associate with him. Everything he said was a joke.”
ABC’s New York affiliate reported that Tamura had two mental health crisis holds in Nevada, in 2022 and 2024.
How this guy is doing better than any one of the law enforcement in the United States of America he’s got CTE man too bad he blew his brains out man he could have ran the whole fucking precinct in this country man