CBSA gunman who killed four people when he stormed a skyscraper in the heart of New York on Monday evening left a note that appeared to blame the National Football League (NFL) for a brain injury, the city’s Mayor Eric Adams has said.
The attacker, 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, shot himself dead after opening fire in a building where the American football league has its headquarters, but went to a different part of the building after taking the wrong lift.
The gunman was carrying a note in which he blamed CTE, a brain disease triggered by head trauma, for his mental illness, Adams said.
Tamura played football as a teenager but did not play in the NFL, ex-teammates have told US media.
New York City police officer Didarul Islam, 36 – who was working as a security guard at the building – was among those killed. Three more victims are yet to be formally identified.
An NFL employee was also “seriously injured” in the attack, the league’s commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a message to staff.
Asked about a possible motive, Adams told CBS: “[Temura] 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.
“He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury.”
The gunman appears to have driven across the US from Las Vegas to New York, and used an assault-style rifle during the attack.
After opening fire in the lobby, he got in a lift to the 33rd floor of the skyscraper and continued to open fire.
Mayor Adams said a preliminary investigation shows that the gunman mistakenly went to the office of Rudin Management, which owns the building.
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