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, police sources said Tuesday.
Tamura, 27, said in the note, which is a few pages long and which he had on him as he carried out his shooting rampage Monday, that he wants his brain to be studied, the sources said.
Tamura, who played competitive football when he was young, also took issue with the NFL, saying “they’ll squash you” if criticized or called out, the sources said.
The NFL has officers on four lower floors of the building where the shooting occurred.
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.
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.
Tamura lived in Las Vegas and had a history of mental illness, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at press conference Monday night.
Tamura drove cross-country and double-parked his black BMW when he arrrived 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.
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.
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