The parents of a 27-year-old real estate employee killed in last year’s mass shooting at a Park Avenue office tower sued the building’s owners Tuesday, alleging that serious security failures contributed to their daughter’s death.
Craig and Nanci Hyman contend that Rudin Management and other security providers failed to maintain effective protections at 345 Park Ave., where their daughter, Julia Hyman, was killed on July 28, 2025, by a gunman who entered the Midtown skyscraper.
“Julia’s pain, suffering, and death were preventable,” the wrongful-death complaint, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, states. “The mere existence of security personnel or security procedures was not enough. Those measures had to work.”
The lawsuit names Rudin Management, which owns the 44-story building, along with the security companies hired to protect its occupants. The defendants are accused of failing to safeguard the tower against violent threats and to respond effectively once the attack began.
Among the alleged failures were the absence of a reliable system for notifying occupants about an active emergency and the failure to lock down the elevators while the gunman moved through the building.
The lawsuit claims Julia and other victims might have survived if the building had implemented effective lockdown procedures that prevented the shooter from reaching the upper floors of the Park Avenue tower.
Shane Tamura drove from his home in Las Vegas to Manhattan, crossed the building’s outdoor plaza carrying an AR-15-style rifle and entered the tower. Investigators say he intended to attack the National Football League’s headquarters on the fifth floor.
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Instead, Tamura entered the wrong elevator and ended up on the 33rd floor, where Rudin’s management offices were located and where Hyman worked as an associate.
“Julia’s death was not simply the result of a lone gunman’s actions,” the complaint states. “It was also the culmination of myriad security failures that allowed an armed assailant to move through a major office building in midtown Manhattan, shoot occupants, access an elevator, reach the 33rd floor, and kill a young woman.”
Tamura also killed Wesley LePatner, 43, the chief executive of a Blackstone real estate investment fund; Aland Etienne, 46, a security guard at the building; and NYPD Detective Didarul Islam, 36.
“Julia went to work that day with every expectation that the people responsible for the building’s security had taken reasonable steps to protect her,” said Benedict Morelli, founding partner of Morelli Law Firm, which represents Hyman’s parents.
“We believe failures in the building’s security and emergency response contributed to this tragedy, and Julia’s family deserves answers and accountability.”
Hyman’s family is also considering a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against New York City. In a court filing last summer, they alleged that Islam “utterly and completely failed to identify an obvious impending security threat and took no actions whatsoever to thwart or mitigate said threat.”
A judge recently allowed the Hyman family and another shooting victim who was wounded in the attack to pursue claims against the city. Neither had filed a new lawsuit as of Tuesday.
