The mother of the man who killed four people at a Manhattan office tower home to the NFL before taking his own life told 911 dispatchers during a 2022 incident when he threatened to kill himself that he suffered from a sports-related concussion and other issues, new information released by Las Vegas police Tuesday revealed.
Shane Tamura, 27, had a documented history of mental health problems and carried a handwritten note in his wallet when he carried out the shooting that claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, investigators said. He accused the football league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports.
His mother told the dispatchers on Sept. 12, 2022, that her son was also struggling with depression, chronic migraines and insomnia; was taking sleeping pills and smoked marijuana; and kept a gun in his backpack. It was one of two incidents that led to Tamura being admitted to hospitals for mental health crises.
“He said he’s going to kill himself,” she said in the recorded 911 call. “He didn’t say he made a plan, he just said he just can’t take it anymore.”
Tamura’s mother placed the call from outside a Budget Suites Motel and reported that her son was threatening to hurt himself.
“He just started crying and slamming things and said I’m making him worse, so I said, ‘I’ll step outside,’” she said. “I don’t want you to be upset, but I’m afraid to leave.”
She told dispatchers she would wait in the stairwell because she did not want Tamura to know she had called the police.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
Tamura was committed to a hospital again in 2024 after calling his mother and making statements about wanting to hurt himself, according to a first responder captured on body camera video released by Las Vegas police.
Tamura, 27, worked at the Horseshoe Las Vegas until last week, when authorities say he drove his car to New York and carried out the shooting.
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