Four people were killed, including an NYPD officer, and another man was critically injured in a shooting Monday evening inside a Midtown Manhattan office building, which houses the corporate offices of the National Football League and Blackstone.
The gunman was identified Monday night as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas. Police said he entered the skyscraper lobby on Park Avenue just before 6:30 p.m. EDT, and opened fire, before barricading himself on the 33rd floor. Tamura was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to officers, who said he acted alone.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the alleged shooter’s body was found next to a Palmetto State Armory AR-15 assault rifle. Tisch said Tamura “immediately opened fire on the NYPD officer” inside the lobby before shooting several other people and heading for the 33rd floor. Police later released a photo of Tamura as he walked into the building, carrying a long gun in a crowded area just blocks from the Museum of Modern Art and Grand Central Station.
According to the police commissioner, officers found more guns, ammunition and medication during a search of Tamura’s vehicle. Tamura drove cross-country Saturday through Monday, when he arrived in New York City in the late afternoon. Tisch said: “Surveillance video shows a male exit a double-parked black BMW on Park Avenue, between 51st and 52nd streets, carrying an M-4 rifle in his right hand as he walks toward the building’s entrance. The building’s security camera footage shows the shooter enter the lobby, turn right and immediately open fire on an NYPD officer. He then shoots a woman who took cover behind a pillar and proceeds through the lobby, spraying it with gunfire. He went up to the 33rd floor, where the offices of Rudin Management are located, and fired several rounds. One person was struck and killed on that floor. He then proceeds down a hallway and shoots himself in the chest.”
NYPD officials and NYC Mayor Eric Adams released the identity of the officer killed on Monday night: “Five innocent people shot tonight. We lost four souls to another senseless act of gun violence, including a member of the New York City Police Department, Officer Islam. He is an immigrant from Bangladesh and he loved this city. He was a true blue New Yorker, not only in the uniform he wore but in his spirit and energy of loving this city.” According to police, NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, 36, was a paid detail at the building. He was a three-and-a-half-year veteran of the department and leaves behind a wife, two young boys and a baby on the way.
Three other civilians were also killed; Adams added: “Two males and one female were killed and another male was seriously injured, fighting for his life in critical condition. Additionally, the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Police Commissioner Tisch said that: “Mr. Tamura has a documented mental health history. His motives are still under investigation and we are still trying to understand why he targeted this particular location. I want to extend my profound sympathies to all of the victims and their families and to the brave NYPD cops who today lost a brother.”
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