Eerie messages have been found on the reverse side of what appears to be a suicide note left by shooter Shane Tamura, who stormed a New York City skyscraper and killed four individuals on Monday.
The 27-year-old stated he had a brain ailment and provided investigators with the password to his computer before taking his own life.
On Monday before 6 pm, Tamura pulled up to the Midtown Manhattan office building after driving for days from his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He stormed into the skyscraper, home to prestigious businesses, as the day’s final office workers exited, fatally shooting a New York City police officer with an M4 rifle as he entered.
Tamura murdered an executive, who is a mom of two, and killed another security guard before taking the elevator up to the 33rd floor.
He arrived at the headquarters for the property management firm Rudin and killed a 27-year-old associate before shooting himself in the chest.
Next to his body, investigators found two notes, seemingly from a day planner, filled with three pages of incoherent ramblings, according to police sources who spoke to ABC News.
In his messy handwriting, Tamura asserted he was afflicted by a severe brain disorder and blamed the NFL for concealing the risks associated with playing football.
Police believe Tamura was seeking to target the NFL, which is headquartered in the building that he stormed, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.
Tamura participated in high school football, but whether the sport contributed to chronic traumatic encephalopathy—an ailment diagnosed posthumously in some professional players who committed suicide—remains uncertain.
On the back of one note, an eerie message was printed on the paper that read, “Plan, pause, reflect & flourish,” pictures obtained by ABC News showed.
Under that, Tamura wrote “CTE chronic traumatic encephalopathy” and “Study by brain please I’m sorry.”
He told investigators to tell someone, “I’m sorry for everything” before giving his computer password.
EERIE HISTORY
Tamura was working as a security guard in the surveillance department for the Horseshoe hotel and casino when he died.
First responders put him in two mental health crisis holds, once in 2022 and again in 2024, law enforcement sources told the outlet.
Normally, this involves someone being brought to a mental health facility or hospital where medical professionals provide care until the person is no longer considered a danger to themselves or others.
He grew up in Los Angeles, California, which is where he excelled on the football field as a teenager.
His dad, Terence Tamura, was a Los Angeles Police Department officer who served for 27 years before retiring in 2017, the LAPD confirmed.
Timeline of NYC shooting
A gunman stormed 345 Park Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan, on Monday night killing four before turning the gun on himself.
Cops are now investigating why the suspect Shane Tamura carried out the brutal attack and have released a preliminary timeline and are tracing back through his movements.
July 26 – Tamura drives through Colorado in his black BMW
July 27 – Tamura drives through Nebraska and Iowa. He also doesn’t show up for work as a security guard at a Las Vegas casino
July 28, 6.28pm – Reports of the shooting are first made to NYPD. Tamura had moments earlier double parked his car and walked across a plaza into 345 Park Avenue
Once inside, Tamura shoots off-duty officer Didarul Islam working as security dead
He guns down a woman attempting to hide behind a pillar as he sprays the lobby with bullets
Tamura walks towards the elevators where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk
Gunman spares woman’s life after she walks out of elevator in front of him
He travels up to the 33rd floor to Rudin Properties’ office and fires as he walks the floor killing one
Tamura shoots himself in his chest ending his life and ending the rampage
7.52pm – NYC Police Commissioner Tisch posted on X: “the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
VICTIMS NAMED
Officer Didarul Islam, 36, security guard Aland Etienne, Blackrock executive Wesley LePatner, and Rudin associate Julia Hyman have been named as the four victims.
An NFL employee was also injured in the gunfire, but they are expected to recover, league commissioner Roger Goodell said.
LePatner was a mom of two who served on many charity boards for New York City institutions.
Etienne was mourned as a “brave” guard who was killed while standing between Tamura and the elevators.
Hyman was a star student at Cornell University who was on the Ivy League’s Deal List when she graduated in 2020.
She had worked for Rudin for less than a year when Tamura barged into the office.
Islam was a dad of two who was expecting his third child with his wife.
He was working as a security guard in the building during his office hours to make some extra money.
President Donald Trump said he was shocked and saddened to hear about the shooting in Manhattan, which he once called home.
In a Truth Social post, he wrote, “I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence.”
