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New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that a gunman who killed four people at a Manhattan office building was trying to target the headquarters of the NFL but took the wrong elevator.
Shane Tamura had driven his car from Nevada to New York City in recent days. He was attempting to access the NFL offices after shooting several people in the building's lobby but accidentally entered the wrong set of elevator banks, Adams said in interviews Tuesday.
Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed. Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested he had a grievance against the NFL over an unsubstantiated claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. He had played football in high school in California nearly two decades ago.
"He seemed to have blamed the NFL," Adams said. "The NFL headquarters was located in the building, and he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank."
An employee of the NFL was seriously injured in the shooting and was hospitalized in stable condition as of early Tuesday morning, league commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo to employees.
The office complex was also home to Blackstone, which confirmed that one of its employees, Wesley LePatner, was among those killed.
"Words cannot express the devastation we feel," the firm said in a statement. "Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed. She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond."
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
