Manhattan shooter who killed 4 had brain disease CTE, blamed NFL for it

The mass shooter who killed four people and himself in a Manhattan office building in July is revealed to be suffering from a degenerative brain disease, CTE. The 27-year-old, Shane Tamura, played football in high school but eventually developed an “unambiguous diagnostic evidence” of low-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the medical examiner found on Friday.

It is pertinent to note that the chronic condition can only be diagnosed posthumously and is caused by repeated exposure to head trauma. Interestingly, the condition is most commonly associated in the US with tackle football players, in particular those who have made it to the NFL

“The medical examiner found unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, in the brain tissue of the decedent,” the New York City medical examiner said in a statement on Friday. “The findings correspond with the classification of low-stage CTE, according to current consensus criteria,” it furthered.

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About the case

According to The Guardian, the medical examiner conducted a brain examination as part of Tamura’s criminal autopsy. It was done after police found a note left by the suspect at the scene of the 28 July shooting, in which he expressed anger that his mental troubles may have been linked to playing football and requested his brain be studied for CTE.

In the note, Tamura claimed that he had a traumatic brain injury and blamed the NFL for “concealing the dangers to players’ brains to maximise profits”. “Study my brain, please. I’m sorry,” he wrote. However, it is pertinent to note that the suspect never played in the NFL.

Tamura drove across the country from Las Vegas to New York and was targeting the NFL headquarters, which are located on a different floor of the Park Avenue building where the shooting took place. Four people were killed in the shooting.

This included a security guard at 345 Park Avenue, an executive at Blackstone, a police officer and an employee at Rudin Management. While CTE is most commonly associated with professional athletes such as former football players, boxers and hockey players, it has also been found in student athletes, including those who did not play sports after high school or college.

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Tamura played high school football in California about a decade ago. His family has claimed that he had suffered from migraines and mental illness, as well as multiple concussions.