How the NYC mass shooting unfolded: Shane Tamura’s cross-country drive to carnage at NFL office tower
Armed with a high-powered semiautomatic rifle, Shane Devon Tamura traveled more than 2,500 miles cross-country to New York City intent on carrying out a horrifying mass shooting in a Midtown Manhattan office building that is home to the National Football League.
Investigators are still piecing together Tamura’s movements in the days before he killed four people — including an NYPD officer — and shot several others before taking his own life, but they revealed he traveled in a black BMW cross-country through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Jersey before arriving at his final destination of New York early evening Monday.
The 27-year-old has a registered address in Las Vegas and the BMW is registered in Nevada, according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Tamura stormed 345 Park Ave. at East 51st Street Monday evening, where he began “spraying” the lobby with bullets from an M4 rifle, said Tisch.
Four people are dead, including Police Officer Didarul Islam, Blackstone executive and mother of two Wesley LaPante, security guard Aland Etienne, and Rudin Management associate Julia Hyman. The NFL said one of its employees was seriously injured.
The gunman took the elevator up to Rudin Management’s 33rd-floor office, where he continued firing rounds, before turning the gun on himself, according to the commissioner.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that Tamura intended to target the NFL offices located on the lower levels.
“He did have a note on him. The note alluded to that he felt he had CTE, a known brain injury for those who participate in contact sports,” Adams said in an interview with CBS Mornings. “He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury.”
Here is what we know about Tamura’s movements before and during the shooting so far…
Gunman was a Las Vegas resident
Police haven’t specified when Tamura left his home in Las Vegas for New York but said he traveled the 2,523 miles “cross country” before carrying out the violence.
He was a resident of a gated neighborhood on Breakwater Drive near Desert Shores, Clark County, according to the Las Vegas Journal Review.
Officers swooped on his address to search the property for clues into his motive.
A woman who answered the door at Tamura’s residence declined to speak when approached by the outlet. The gunman was in Las Vegas as recently in March, the newspaper reported. He had been working in security at the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotel, the company confirmed in a statement.
At Monday night’s press conference, Tisch said Tamura had a “documented mental health history,” which the NYPD gleaned from working with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on the case.
Tisch revealed that Tamura had a Las Vegas concealed weapons permit.
July 26 and 27: Shooter travels through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa before entering New Jersey
The shooter spent the weekend on the road.
Tamura’s black BMW was seen passing through Colorado on Saturday, July 26, and then in Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday, July 27.
At 4:24 p.m. on Monday July 28, approximately two hours before the bloodbath, Tamura’s vehicle was seen in Columbia, New Jersey, roughly 66 miles away.
The car entered New York City shortly thereafter, Tisch said. The NYPD found a loaded revolver, ammunition, magazines, and a rifle case with rounds when they later searched his vehicle.
Sometime before 6:30 p.m., Tamura was seen alone on surveillance video exiting his parked vehicle on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street carrying an M4 rifle in his right hand, according to Tisch.
July 28: Tamura enters the lobby of 345 Park Avenue armed with rifle
Tamura was captured on surveillance video walking toward the lobby of 345 Park Ave., casually holding the rifle at his side as he strolled toward the entrance.
Multiple 911 calls reporting an active shooter came in at 6:28 p.m. and the building went into lockdown, as frantic employees barricaded themselves in their offices using whatever furniture they could.
“Building security camera footage shows the shooter enter the lobby, turn right and immediately open fire on an NYPD officer,” said Tisch. NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, 36, who has just under four years on the job, was the first to die in the mass shooting.
“He then shoots a woman who took cover behind a pillar and proceeds through the lobby, spraying it with gunfire,” Tisch said. That victim was Blackstone executive Wesley LaPanter, a wife and mother of two who had been with the company since 2014, the investment firm said.
Tamura then made his way to one of the two elevator banks and shot dead guard Aland Etienne, who was taking cover behind a security desk. Etienne, identified as one of the victims by a labor union, had bravely attempted to activate an alarm to stop the elevators before he was killed, Mayor Adams told CBS Mornings.
“If he was able to get to the button, he could have froze the elevator,” the mayor told the outlet. “But he was assassinated behind the counter as he attempted to hide himself.”
Another man was shot during the carnage in the lobby and was taken to the hospital in a serious condition.
Gunman lets woman exit elevator unscathed as he takes it to 33rd floor
The gunman was able to call the elevator in the lobby up to the 33rd floor, which New York City Mayor Eric Adams said was by mistake — as the NFL offices he is believed to have sought out are on lower floors.
As he approached the elevator on the lobby floor, a woman exited.
“A female exits that elevator and he allows her to walk past him unharmed,” Tisch said.
Tamura “appeared to have gone to the wrong [elevator bank]” and that is how he ended up on the floor of Rudin Management, Adams said.
Recent Cornell graduate Julia Hyman was the fourth victim in the massacre and was working as an associate for the company, according to the New York Post.
“He goes up to the 33rd floor and begins to walk the floor, firing rounds as he traveled,” Tisch said, confirming that he killed one person who worked on that level.
Tamura then proceeded down a hallway and fatally shot himself in the chest, Tisch said.
At 7:52 p.m., Tisch confirmed the scene had been contained and the shooter was neutralized in a post on social media.
