Park Avenue Shooting Update: NYC mayor reveals shooter was targeting NFL headquarters

An active shooter at 345 Park Ave in Manhattan, home of NFL headquarters, on Monday ended with four people dead. Now, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has shared that it was the NFL headquarters specifically that had been targeted by the shooter.

The suspected shooter, who was identified as Shane Tamura, is believed to have been targeting the NFL, but got into the wrong elevator within the building. The location is shared by the NFL with Blackstone. He has been noted as someone who struggled with mental health issues and potentially CTE.

“He seemed to have blamed the NFL,” Mayor Adams said. “The NFL headquarters was located in the building, and he mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank.”

A former high school football player, it has also been reported that the shooter carried a note with him. In it, he made the claim to have CTE and asked for his brain to be studied in the aftermath. The note also reportedly included a reference to the NFL, which has led investigators to connect his actions with the league.

“The 27-year-old man who allegedly shot and killed four people at a Midtown office building on Monday carried a note in his pocket claiming he suffered from CTE and asking that his brain be studied,” police sources told ABC News. “The note also made references to the National Football League, police said. The shooting on Monday took place at 345 Park Ave., which houses, among other companies, the NFL’s headquarters.”

CTE, or Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease. It has been linked to concussions or head trauma, and playing football has been directly linked to developing it. In the past, the NFL has faced lawsuits over allegedly covering up knowledge of the connection between CTE and concussions.

Officially, investigators don’t have an identified motive for the shooting. However, the link to the NFL, given where the shooting took place and the content of the note allegedly found on his person, has made for a clear connection.

Among those killed was a NYC police officer. He had been stationed working a security detail in the lobby of the Park Avenue skyscraper.

“Our officer, he was slain in the entryway to the right as soon as he entered the building, the suspect entered the building,” Adams said. “He appeared to have first walked past the officer and then he turned to his right, and saw him and discharged several rounds.”

The shooter initially went up the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owned the building, Rudin Management. He’d shoot and kill one person on that floor. In the end, four people died and several others were injured. Among the injured, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would later share, was an NFL employee. The shooter died by an apparent suicide.

“NFL employees: As has been widely reported, a gunman committed an unspeakable act of violence in our building at 345 Park Avenue. One of our employees was seriously injured in this attack. He is currently in the hospital and in stable condition. NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family,” Goodell said in a memo.

“We believe that all of our employees are otherwise sage and accounted for, and the building has nearly been cleared. We are deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively and to Officer Islam, who gave his life to protect others. Please continue to pay close attention to GSOC notices for all available emergency information. These communications allow us to ensure that you are safe.”

The police officer who died was Didarul Islam, a 36-year-old father. All other identities of those killed and injured remain private.