A lone shooter who killed four people in a Park Avenue high-rise office building on Monday reportedly blamed football for his documented mental illness in a note he left at the scene. He shot himself to death afterward, authorities said.
Officials “familiar with the investigation” told NBC News that Shane Tamura’s note linking his mental health woes to having played the game has prompted law enforcement to investigate whether Tamura carried out his attack at the building because it houses the NFL headquarters.
An NFL employee was seriously injured in the shooting, league Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed, but not on one of the several floors that house the league’s offices.
The New York Post provided more details of the alleged note.
Tamura wrote that he blamed football for his claim that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, law enforcement sources told the tabloid, although the condition can only be diagnosed upon death. CTE has been found in a relatively high percentage of former NFL players who were subjected to repeated head trauma.
Tamura, who reportedly shot himself in the chest on the 33rd floor, where he died with the note in his pocket, asked that his brain be studied, the Post added.
Fox 11 Los Angeles noted Tamura, who was recently a security guard at a Las Vegas casino, was a star football player at Golden Valley High School and Granada Hills Charter High School in California but did not mention any playing career beyond that.
“Could I have done more?” asked Walter Roby, Tamura’s coach during his senior year at Granada Hills. “Could I help the kid? Could I have reached out to him or could you reach out to me? It’s just a lot of things I’m trying to process right now.”
Tamura had mental health crisis holds in Nevada in 2022 and 2024, ABC in New York reported.
The New York City Police Department did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.
Angelina Katsanis/Associated Press
