New York, July 29, 2025 – A gunman who stormed a Manhattan skyscraper on Monday evening and killed four people, including a police officer and a Blackstone employee, left behind a note blaming the National Football League (NFL) for his mental illness, allegedly caused by a football-related brain injury.
Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the shooter, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura from Las Vegas, appeared to hold the NFL responsible for his deteriorating mental health. Although Tamura never played professionally, he was a high school football player in California, where former teammates recall him as a determined athlete.
Tamura carried out the attack inside a building housing the NFL’s headquarters. However, after entering the lobby and opening fire, he mistakenly took an elevator to the 33rd floor, ending up in the offices of Rudin Management, the building’s owners, rather than the intended NFL offices. There, he continued his deadly rampage before fatally turning the weapon on himself.
Among the victims was Didarul Islam, a 36-year-old New York City police officer working as a security guard. Wesley LePatner, an employee at investment firm Blackstone, was also killed, along with two other unidentified male civilians. One NFL employee remains in critical condition, according to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The note found on Tamura claimed he suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma and commonly found in former football players. The letter detailed his struggles with mental illness and expressed rage toward the NFL.
Tamura reportedly drove cross-country from Las Vegas to New York, carrying an assault-style rifle. The attack plunged Midtown Manhattan into chaos, halting public transportation and triggering a massive law enforcement response. Eyewitnesses described scenes of panic and confusion as gunshots rang out and emergency crews swarmed the building.
One woman, Nekeisha Lewis, who had been dining outside nearby, recounted the terror. “It felt like a warzone,” she told NBC News, adding she saw an injured man flee the building covered in blood.
Police conducted a floor-by-floor sweep of the skyscraper, a painstaking process that lasted several hours as the city reeled from one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent New York memory.
The investigation into Tamura’s background, mental health history, and how he obtained the weapon is ongoing. Mayor Adams has called for a renewed focus on mental health and gun access, especially as trauma-related brain injuries continue to raise alarm in the sports world.
