Tragedy in New York: Mass Shooter Opens Fire with M4

An NYPD officer and three others were killed in a shooting at the New York City office skyscraper in midtown Manhattan on Monday evening by a 27-year-old man with an assault rifle. The building houses some of the country’s top financial firms like Blackstone, KPMG and the US National Football League.

It has been reported that a fifth victim was in a critical state. The gunman shot himself in the chest and died after terrorizing workers in the 33rd floor of the building.

The police identified the shooter as Shane Devon Tamura, from Las Vegas. He is known to have a documented mental health history but was licensed to carry firearms in his home state.

The police are investigating the motive behind the unprovoked shooting. Police said that the youth drove himself across the country to New York over three days, double parked his BMW on Park Avenue and entered the office building armed with an M4 carbine assault rifle.

The CCTV footage showed Tamura, wearing a blue shirt, dark jacket and sunglasses, loitering across the forecourt of the Manhattan building just before 6.30 pm (New York time), on Monday evening.

New York City Police Commissioner Jennifer Tisch said that Tamura opened fire on an NYPD officer who was doing a paid security shift, before shooting a woman who tried to hide herself behind a pillar.

Then he sprayed the lobby with bullets, went to the elevator bank and shot a security guard, before heading up to the 33rd floor and shooting another person on that floor. The NYPD officer, identified as Didarul Islam, 36, was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to injuries. He was an immigrant from Bangladesh who had been with the police department for the last three years. He is married and has two young boys. His wife is pregnant with their third child.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said the “violent, despicable attack” was a reminder of how easy it was to access a gun in the US.

The black BMW car in which Tamura drove to Park Avenue was registered in his name in Nevada. Inside the vehicle, police found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition, a backpack and prescription medication in his name.

Three days before the shooting, Tamura’s vehicle passed through Colorado on July 26, through Nebraska and Iowa on July 27, and through Columbia, New Jersey on July 28.