The gunman, Shane Tamura, who fatally shot four people inside a Manhattan office tower had originally planned to target the National Football League’s headquarters but ended up in the wrong location after taking the wrong elevator, officials said Tuesday. The probe also revealed he was carrying handwritten note in his wallet blaming NFL for his mental health problems.
What did the note say?
Tamura—a security worker at a Las Vegas casino—was found carrying a handwritten note in his wallet alleging he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
In the three-page note found on his body, he accused the NFL of concealing the dangers to players’ brains for profit. The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports such as football.
Tamura’s note repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE. He mentioned a PBS Frontline documentary about the disease and referred to former NFL player Terry Long, who was diagnosed with CTE, and the manner in which Long killed himself in 2005.
The attacker’s grievances with the NFL emerged as police worked to piece together his background and motivations, and as loved ones began to mourn the dead.
It’s unclear whether Tamura showed symptoms of CTE, which can be diagnosed only by examining a brain after death.
The NFL long denied the link between football and CTE, but it acknowledged the connection in 2016 testimony before Congress and has paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims.
The shooting happened at a skyscraper on Park Avenue, one of the nation’s most recognized streets, just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It is less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over what he saw as corporate greed.
Tamura, 27, sprayed the skyscraper’s lobby with bullets then shot another person in a 33rd-floor office on Monday before he killed himself, authorities said. Among the dead were a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building. An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.
Tamura, who played high school football in California a decade ago but never played in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said without giving details.