During a Monday-night press conference, NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch offered a preliminary overview of what police had learned about what happened.
She said that the suspect, 27-year-old Shane Tamura, had spent the past few days driving cross-country from his home in Las Vegas. On Monday evening, he drove into Manhattan from New Jersey and just before 6:30 p.m., double-parked his black BMW on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd street, then walked into 345 Park Avenue carrying an M4 assault rifle.
Inside, Tamura immediately opened fire on an NYPD officer and others. He shot and fatally wounded a woman hiding behind a pillar, then sprayed the lobby with gunfire and proceeded to the elevator bank, Tisch said, where he shot a security guard attempting to take cover behind a desk. He then called an elevator and, when it arrived, allowed a woman exiting the elevator to walk past him without harm.
He took the elevator to the 33rd floor, where he shot and killed a woman before eventually killing himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. It’s not clear why he traveled to that floor, which contains the offices of Rudin Management, the company that owns 345 Park Avenue and many other buildings around the city.
Tisch said that when police searched the suspect’s vehicle, they found “a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition and magazines, a backpack, and medication prescribed to Mr. Tamura.” She said the suspect had a “documented mental-health history.”
“His motives are still under investigation, and we are working to understand why he targeted this particular location,” she added.
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