Gunman Shane Tamura may have targeted NFL offices over handling of concussions: official

A suicide note reportedly found on the body of gunman Shane Tamura may indicate the Manhattan mass shooting was motivated by an ongoing health scandal plaguing America’s most popular sports league.

The gunman, identified as Shane Tamura (inset), barged into a 44-storey building in New York – which houses Blackstone and the NFL headquarters – armed with a rifle and opened fire. Pictures: AFP/New York Post

A gunman who callously shot dead four people after storming a Manhattan office tower is suspected of targeting the NFL because of the league’s handling of concussion, with a suicide note ­reportedly claiming he was ­suffering from a brain condition as a ­result of playing American football.

Shane Tamura, 27, entered the 44-storey building at 345 Park Avenue – which houses the headquarters of the NFL and financial firm Blackstone – armed with an M4 assault rifle and opened fire at 6.30pm local time (8.30am Tuesday AEST). A 36-year-old police officer and three other people were shot dead by Tamura, who then turned the gun on himself.

A note found on Tamura’s body was critical of the NFL’s handling of concussion and its link to chronic traumatic ­encephalopathy (CTE), a police source told CNN.

“Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of anti-freeze,” the note said. “You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you.”

Long, a player with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was diagnosed with CTE. He committed suicide by drinking anti-freeze in 2005.

In the note, Tamura, a competitive footballer in his youth, also asked to have his brain examined. “Study my brain please. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything,” he wrote in the note.

CTE is an Alzheimer’s-like ­disease associated with various football codes, including AFL and rugby league in Australia, and is linked to ­repeated head knocks.

The NFL said an ­employee had been “seriously ­injured” and instructed all staff to work from home on Tuesday.

The mass shooting happened five blocks from where UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson was assassinated last year by accused killer and 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione. Tamura, who police said had a documented ­history of mental illness, arrived in New York on Monday afternoon after driving his black BMW across the country, passing through Colorado on Sat­urday and Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday. In a manner described as ­“brazen”, he double-parked on Park ­Avenue, got out with the ­assault rifle in his right hand and started shooting as soon as he was inside the building’s lobby.

He first shot dead police officer Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was a ­married father of two children. The officer’s wife is pregnant with their third child. Tamura sprayed the lobby with gunfire, shooting a woman who was taking cover ­behind a pillar and a security guard hiding behind a desk.

Police Officer Didarul Islam represented the very best of our department. 

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.#FidelisAdMortempic.twitter.com/vkBZetsz2N

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 29, 2025

A Blackstone executive was shot in the lobby and was among those killed. Other Blackstone employees suffered gunshot wounds. Other workers barricaded themselves inside their offices as the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the building.

Tamura then pressed the button on a lift, letting a woman step out unharmed, before heading up to the 33rd floor to the offices of real estate firm Rudin Management. The NYPD received calls from the 32nd and 33rd floors, with officers saying he “fired as he travelled”, striking and killing one person before shooting himself in the chest. “We lost four souls to another senseless act of gun violence,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

Inside Tamura’s car, police found a rifle case, a loaded revolver, ammunition and magazines, and medication.

Retired NYPD captain John Monaghan suggested Tamura’s actions were cold and calculated.

“This is a guy who went into that building knowing, intending to kill someone and probably knowing he was not going to come out alive,” he told CNN. “It’s clear ... he is not worried about getting caught.”

One female office worker said: “I was in the building. He went floor by floor.”

Office worker Shad Sakib said he was preparing to head home when a public address announcement warned staff to shelter in place.

“Everyone was confused with, like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realised – it’s online – that someone walked in with a machine gun,” he said.

A witness on the first floor said that “it sounded like a barrage of shots … Like an automatic ­weapon. Like a high-capacity weapon.”

Nekeisha Lewis, who was a nearby restaurant when the shooting started, said: “It felt like it was a quick two shots and then it was rapid fire.”

She windows shattered and a man ran from the building shouting, “Help, help. I’m shot.”

Tamura faced a misdemeanour trespassing charge in Nevada in 2023, court documents show, and once held a private investigator’s licence.

He was born in Hawaii but lived in Las Vegas. He had a concealed carry permit for a handgun and recently worked as a security guard at a casino.

A chilling photo from inside 345 Park Avenue as they barricaded inside while the crazed shooter sprayed bullets around them. pic.twitter.com/cTJwYOirTY

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 29, 2025

Clockwise from left: Tamura’s gun licence; in his high school days playing American football; CCTV footage of the dead gunman.

A former school friend told CNN that Tamura had never been “problematic”.

“When I knew him, he was a great teammate,” the friend, who declined to be named, said. “He was a great guy in general. He didn’t cause any problems, ­actually at all, in the locker room or on the field. He was just a guy that really enjoyed the sport.”

The police officer who was killed was from the 47 precinct, but was working a paid security detail for the owner of the building, Rudin Properties, at the time of the shooting.

“He loved this city and everyone we spoke with stated he was a person of faith and a person that believed in God and believed in living out the life of a godly person,” Mr Adams said.

The mayor had earlier wanted New Yorkers of “an active shooter investigation”.

“New Yorkers: there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street,” he wrote on social media.

Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush hour as dozens of officers gathered in the area, some carrying assault rifles and others wearing ballistic vests. 

The streets were clogged with dozens of police and ambulance vehicles.

The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters, including that of Colgate-Palmolive.

There have been 254 mass shootings in the US this year, including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded.

The frontrunner in the race for New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wrote on X that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in Midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer … in my thoughts.”

WSJ