Gunman targeted NFL, suicide note blames CTE brain injury for New York City mass shooting

Shane Tamura, the Park Ave. gunman who killed an NYPD officer and three others before taking his own life, left behind a suicide note saying he suffered from CTE, a brain injury often linked to playing football, and was targeting the NFL — but took the wrong elevator, officials said Tuesday.

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Tamura, 27, who played competitive football when he was young, took issue with the NFL in the note. He never played for the NFL

“You can’t go against the NFL,” he wrote, police sources said. “They’ll squash you.”

The suicide note, scribbled on three pages from different daily planner inserts and to-do lists, was folded neatly in his wallet as he carried out the shooting rampage Monday, cops said.

The pages had pre-printed messages on them reading “My daily affirmation” on the corner of one page and “Plan, Pause, Reflect, and Flourish” in the center of another page, which had white and pink lines. The note was handwritten in both pen and marker, an NYPD spokesman said.

In the note, he says he wants his brain to be studied.

Footage obtained by the Daily News shows a man, later identified as Shane Tamura, carrying what appears to be an assault rifle entering 345 Park Ave. before reports of a shooting. (Obtained by Daily News)

One in three former NFL players, according to a study, believe they have CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The neuropathological condition is linked to repeated head trauma but can only be diagnosed through a postmortem exam.

“Please study brain for CTE. I’m sorry,” Tamura wrote in the note, the sources said. “The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us.”

The NFL has offices on four lower floors of the building where the shooting occurred.

“We have reason to believe that he was focused on the NFL agency that was located in the building,” Mayor Adams told MSNBC Tuesday morning. Adams confirmed he left a suicide note that talked about CTE.

NYPD officers are pictured outside 345 Park Ave. Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)

The shooting however, took place in the lobby and on the 33rd floor, home to Rudin Management, where police say he killed one woman before shooting himself in the chest.

“He mistakenly went up the wrong elevator bank,” Adams told PIX11 Tuesday, explaining how Tamura ended up on the wrong floor.

Mayor Adams told MSNBC that safeguards on the 33rd floor saved lives.

“On the floor itself, there were safe rooms, such as the bathrooms, where you had bulletproof doors and you were able to lock in the staffers inside,” he said. “Several individuals were able to lock themselves in the safe rooms and we believe it played a major role in not having a greater loss of life.”

Adams worked in the building as a mail clerk as a young man, he said.

Mayor Eric Adams is pictured at the scene of an active shooter in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, July 28, 2025. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)

Tamura lived in Las Vegas and had a history of mental illness, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at press conference Monday night.

In his suicide note, he wrote about Terry Long, a former offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who at first was said to have died in 2006 of cerebral meningitis related to the CTE he was suffering from. A coroner later determined he committed suicide by drinking antifreeze.

“Football gave me CTE and it cause me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,” Tamura wrote.

Tamura drove cross-country and double-parked his black BMW when he arrived at 345 Park Ave., a 44-story skyscraper that takes up an entire block, from E. 51st to E. 52nd St.

Toting an M4, an assault-style rifle, he walked into the lobby of the building and opened fire, Tisch said, first killing NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, who was working his second job as a security officer at the building, Tisch said.

NYPD Police Officer Didarul Islam was assigned to the 47th Precinct in the Bronx. (NYPD)

The gunman shot two other people in the lobby, killing one and badly wounding the other, before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor, Tisch said.

The critically wounded survivor is an NFL executive, police sources said. He has since stabilized, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a memo to staffers, according to ESPN.

“NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family,” Goodell wrote. “We believe that all of our employees are otherwise safe and accounted for.”

The body of NYPD Officer Didarul Islam is transferred from New York Presbyterian Hospital Monday, July 28, 2025. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)

Goodell encouraged employees to work from home Tuesday as the investigation continues and said there would be increased security at the building in the weeks ahead.

In his black BMW, cops found a rifle case with ammunition, a loaded revolver, more ammunition in magazines and a backpack with prescription medication, cops said.

With Thomas Tracy

If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.