Gunman left chilling note revealing ‘motive’ for New York skyscraper mass shooting

The gunman who killed four people in a shooting in a New York office building was carrying a note offering a potential motive for the attack, sources say. Off-duty New York City police officerand shooting victim Didarul Islam, whose wife is pregnant with their third child, is among the dead after the shooting in a high-rise building in Park Avenue, Manhattan, at about 6.30pm local time on Monday. City mayor Eric Adams said in a press conference last night that the suspect, 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura from Nevada, died afterwards of an ‘apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound’ (Pictures: Reuters/Getty Images)

Tamura mentioned the National Football League (NFL) – one of the businesses based in the building – in the note, blaming football for his struggle with brain disease, law enforcement sources told the New York Post. The shooter, who apparently struggled with the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, asked in the note that his brain be studied after his death. Tamura had a licence to own guns in Nevada and had ‘documented mental health history’, Mr Adams said (Pictures: Reuters/Getty Images)

The gunman walked into the office building armed with a rifle and fired shots in the lobby and an upper floor, ‘immediately’ opening fire on an NYPD officer who was assigned to the building as ‘paid detail’. Of those shot in the attack, four were killed, one was seriously injured, and a further four people suffered minor injuries while trying to flee. Pedestrians outside the building ran for cover after NYPD warned of an active shooter, with people in the offices piling chairs and other furniture in front of doors as they hid in their offices, the BBC reports (Picture: ABC7)

The NYPD paid tribute to Officer Islam, saying he represented ‘the very best of our department’. The force said: ‘He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today. We join in prayer during this time of incomprehensible pain. We will forever honor his legacy.’ The three other victims in the shooting are yet to be identified (Picture: REUTERS)

Tamura was seen on CCTV strolling into the building while casually carrying the large rifle in one hand. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said he fatally shot Officer Islam in the lobby, before aiming at a woman who hid behind a pillar (Picture: Anadolu/Getty Images)

While walking through the lobby he ‘sprayed’ gunfire which hit multiple people including a security guard hiding behind a desk and another man. Commissioner Tisch said Tamura waited for an elevator, but when a woman stepped off he let her pass. He went up to the 33rd floor, where Ruden Building Management is located, and opened fire again, killing one person before shooting himself in the chest in a hallway (Picture: Daily Mail)

Tamura travelled from Las Vegas to the east coast cross-country over the last few days, stopping in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and New Jersey. He arrived in New York shortly before the shooting, and it’s not yet known whether he had ties to the city, the building, or to Ruden Building Management. Police searched his car, which he double-parked in front of the building, and found a revolver with multiple magazine rounds (Picture: AP)