Manhattan gunman blamed NFL, CTE in notes before killing four at Park Avenue
The gunman who killed four people in an NYC tower housing the NFL left a suicide note, as all of his victims were named.
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Tragic new details have emerged about the victims of the Manhattan gunman’s deadly rampage through a Park Avenue skyscraper.
Julia Hyman, who worked for Rudin Management — the company that owns the Midtown skyscraper where Shane Tamura carried out his rampage — was one of the four people killed in the horror.
The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate crossed paths with Tamura when he accidentally took the wrong elevator to her employer’s floor and encountered her, shooting her dead.
Ms Hyman had worked as a Rudin associate for less than a year, according to her LinkedIn.
Investigators believe Tamura wanted to shoot up the NFL’s offices on the building’s lower floors, with him claiming in rambling handwritten notes that he suffered from a brain injury from playing football in high school.
But he ended up in the wrong elevator bank at 345 Park Avenue — and it skipped the NFL’s floors and took him instead up to the 33rd floor, where Rudin’s offices are located and he encountered Ms Hyman.
Three others had been killed in the building’s lobby moments earlier by Tamura: Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, a married mother of two; NYPD officer Didarul Islam, whose wife is due to soon give birth to their third child; and security guard and dad Aland Etienne.
Ms LePatner, a 43-year-old senior managing director at the investment giant, came from a prominent New York family and was a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
She was killed in the lobby as she tried to hide behind a pillar, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed,” the company said in a statement.
“She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond. She embodied the best of Blackstone.
“Our prayers are with her husband, children and family. We are also saddened by the loss of the other innocent victims as well, including brave security personnel and N.Y.P.D.”
Security guard Aland Etienne, who was also tragically shot dead in the lobby, was remembered by the head of his union as “a New York hero”.
“Every time a security officer puts on their uniform, they put their lives on the line. Their contributions to our city are essential, though often unappreciated,” 32BJ SEIU president Manny Pastreich said.
CLUES TO NYC MASS KILLER’S MOTIVE
Earlier, Mayor Eric Adams said the gunman intended to target the NFL’s headquarters, however he took the wrong elevator to the incorrect floor.
“He appeared to have gone to the wrong floor,” Mr Adams told Fox 5’s Good Day New York.
“There are two different elevator banks.
“Some banks don’t go to every floor. He appeared to have gone to the wrong bank, and he ended up on the floor of Rudin Management.”
After his horror rampage, Tamura then turned the gun on himself. He left a note behind citing grievances with the NFL.
He claimed he had CTE and asked that his brain be studied in the wake of the massacre.
In the note, he referenced former NFL star Terry Long — the Pittsburgh Steelers player who was diagnosed with CTE after downing antifreeze to kill himself, sources said.
“Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,” the note stated, according to sources.
“You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you.”
“Please study brain for CTE. I’m sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximise profits. They failed us.”
Long, who was an offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the late 80s, was diagnosed with CTE after he killed himself in 2005 by downing antifreeze.
“It appears as though he was going after the employees of the NFL,” Mayor Adams said during an appearance on Fox 5.
“We’re still going through the suicide note to zero on in the exact reason but at this time it appears as if it’s something attached to his belief he experienced CTE from the NFL.”
Despite suggesting he suffered from CTE from playing in the NFL, Tamura never played professional football.
He played high school football in California, where he was described as a standout player.
In the wake of Monday’s massacre, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the maniac gunman, who lived in Las Vegas, had a known mental health history.
Investigators found a note left by Tamura at his Nevada apartment saying he felt like a “disappointment” to his parents — including his father, a retired cop, sources told The Post.
The missive read something like: “When I look into you and dad’s eyes, I see complete disappointment,” the sources said.
His dad was an 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, sources said.
Tamura drove cross country, getting to Manhattan just before he stormed into the Park Avenue skyscraper with an AR-style rifle.
He double-parked his BMW in front of the building, which houses the headquarters of the NFL, his intended target for the rampage.
Upon searching his body, cops found a rambling note in his wallet blaming the NFL for his apparent CTE — a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated blows to the head — despite never actually playing in the league.
Parts of this story originally appeared on The New York Post.
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