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The 27-year-old gunman who shot and killed four people, and then himself, on July 28 in the New York City high-rise that includes the NFL office had CTE, a medical examiner said Friday, per NBC News.
Shane Tamura of Las Vegas played high school football as a running back and defensive back and, according to the New York City medical examiner, had “unambiguous diagnostic evidence” of low-stage CTE, NBC News reported.
CTE, otherwise known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease that’s linked to repeated head injuries, most notably those sustained in contact sports. At the moment, it can only be definitively diagnosed posthumously.
At the scene of the shooting, Tamura left a note, in which he suggested he believed his mental issues stemmed from him playing football, and he requested that his brain to be studied for CTE, said authorities, who also said Tamura was trying to target the NFL headquarters in the Park Avenue building.
Tamura’s note additionally accused the NFL of disguising the sport’s risks to players’ brains in order to maximize profits, according to an ABC report after the deadly attack in Manhattan.
The NFL first publicly acknowledged the connection between football and CTE in 2016, per NBC News.
New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on July 29 that Tamura appeared to have accidentally taken the wrong elevator in the Park Avenue building to the 33rd floor, which is home to offices of the building’s owner, Rudin Management Company.
The NFL has offices on floors 5-8.
Tamura had a history of mental health problems and run-ins with the law, according to authorities, NBC News reported Friday. He reportedly threatened to take his own life in 2022 while battling depression, chronic migraines and insomnia.
The effects of CTE on former NFL players have been widely reported, especially in the case of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who died by suicide at the age of 27 in 2017 after being convicted of murder.