A man responsible for the deaths of four individuals at a Manhattan office building acquired both the rifle he utilized in the attack and the vehicle he drove across the nation from his boss at a Las Vegas casino, as authorities revealed on Wednesday.
Shane Tamura, aged 27, started the assault by shooting three individuals in the building’s lobby on Monday before making his way via elevator to the 33rd floor. There, he claimed a fourth life before committing suicide, according to the police. The premises included the headquarters of the National Football League and various corporate offices.
Police discovered a note on Tamura’s person in which he criticized the NFL’s approach to addressing issues related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy. As a former high school football athlete, Tamura claimed he suffered from the degenerative brain disorder known as CTE, which is often associated with concussions and head injuries.
In his Las Vegas studio apartment, investigators came across another unsettling message, law enforcement officials noted on Wednesday. This note conveyed a sense of his parents’ disappointment and included an apology directed towards his mother.
Police said they also found a psychiatric medication, an epilepsy drug and an anti-inflammatory that had been prescribed to Tamura.
As detectives traced his actions and examined his state of mind, they uncovered that Tamura had bought the rifle and vehicle from a superior at his job within the surveillance sector at Horseshoe Las Vegas, as stated by the New York Police Department.
The supervisor had legally acquired the AR-15-style rifle he eventually sold to Tamura for $1,400, police elaborated, correcting earlier comments that the supervisor had only provided parts of the weapon. It remains uncertain whether the transaction adhered to legal standards.
Police didn’t identify the supervisor, who has been forthcoming with them and hasn’t been charged with any crimes. Tamura had alluded to him, apologetically, in the note found in the gunman’s wallet after the rampage, police said.
Victims’ funerals begin
As investigators worked in both New York and Las Vegas, one of the victims, real estate firm worker Julia Hyman, was buried after a packed, emotional Wednesday service at a Manhattan synagogue.
Her uncle, Rob Pittman, said the 27-year-old lived “with wide open eyes” and “courage and conviction.”
Hyman had worked since November at Rudin Management, which owns the building and has offices on the 33rd floor. A 2020 graduate of Cornell University, she had been the captain of Riverdale Country School’s soccer, swimming and lacrosse teams in her senior year, school officials said.
Relatives and colleagues of another victim, security guard Aland Etienne, remembered him at a gathering at his union’s office. The unarmed Etienne, who leaves a wife and two children, was shot as he manned the lobby security desk.
“We lost a hero,” younger brother Smith Etienne said. “He didn’t wear no cape. Had no fancy gear. He wore a security officer’s uniform.”
Police were preparing for a funeral Thursday for Officer Didarul Islam. A member of the force for over three years, he was killed while working, in uniform, at a department-approved second job providing security for the building.
Funeral arrangements for Etienne and the fourth victim, investment firm executive Wesley LePatner, haven’t been made public.
An NFL employee who was badly wounded in the attack is expected to survive.
Detectives scour for clues in Las Vegas
Teams of New York City detectives continued working Wednesday in Las Vegas, where they had a warrant to search Tamura’s locker at the Horseshoe casino and were awaiting warrants to search his phone and laptop, police said. They also planned to speak to his parents.
Besides the note and medication at his apartment, they found a tripod for his rifle, a box for a revolver that was found in his car in New York, and ammunition for both guns, the police department said.
Police have said Tamura had a history of mental illness, but they haven’t given detail. In September 2023, he was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge after allegedly being told to leave a suburban Las Vegas casino and becoming agitated at being asked for his ID. Prosecutors later dismissed the case.
His psychiatric history would not have prevented him from legally purchasing the revolver just last month.
Nevada is among 21 states with a red-flag law that allows for weapons to be taken from people if courts determine they pose a risk to themselves or others. First, relatives or law enforcement must seek a so-called extreme risk protection order.
A new state law, effective this month, also lets officers confiscate firearms in the immediate vicinity of someone placed on a mental health crisis hold.
“These laws only work if someone makes use of them,” said Lindsay Nichols, policy director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Contributing were Associated Press writers Philip Marcelo in East Meadow, New York, and Jim Mustian in New York City.
