The perpetrator of a tragic July shooting in a Midtown Manhattan office building, responsible for the deaths of four individuals, has been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This degenerative brain disease is commonly associated with repeated head injuries, particularly those sustained in football and other high-impact sports, as confirmed by the New York City medical examiner’s office.
CTE, a condition identifiable only after death, was found in the brain of Shane Tamura, the assailant who took his own life following the devastating incident at 345 Park Avenue.
A formal statement from the medical examiner explicitly states, “unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as C.T.E., was discovered in the brain tissue of the deceased.” The report further clarified that “the findings align with the classification of low-stage C.T.E., based on current agreed-upon criteria.”
Tamura, a former high school football player, ended his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest after the tragic shootings. He left a note expressing profound anger at the National Football League, accusing the organization of concealing the severe effects of CTE. Notably, his final request was for his brain to be examined for the disease.
Authorities reported that the 27-year-old Tamura traveled from his Las Vegas residence to Manhattan, specifically targeting the building at 345 Park Avenue, which serves as the NFL’s headquarters. This location became the site of a deadly rampage that ultimately claimed five lives, including his own.
Among the victims were Didarul Islam, a Police Department officer; Aland Etienne, a security guard stationed at a desk; Wesley LePatner, a senior executive at Blackstone who sought refuge behind a pillar; and Julia Hyman, an employee of Rudin Management. Craig Clementi, an NFL staff member, was also shot and wounded but survived the attack.
Excerpts from Tamura’s note, released by police, reveal his strong condemnation of the National Football League, alleging that the organization prioritized financial gains over transparency regarding the inherent dangers of the sport.
Tamura’s family has chosen not to provide immediate comment regarding these significant findings.
The state of Tamura’s brain once again brings to the forefront critical questions about the potential long-term risks associated with playing tackle football, even from a young age.
Tamura, whose football career concluded after high school, carried a note explicitly mentioning CTE. In it, he accused the NFL of deliberately hiding the risks of brain trauma to protect its profits. According to police, his actions were driven by a desire for retribution against the league, whose offices were located in the targeted building.
Over the last two decades, a growing number of former athletes—including football players, boxers, and hockey players—have been diagnosed with CTE. This has significantly heightened public awareness of the dangers inherent in these sports, and researchers have made considerable strides in understanding the disease and its symptoms. Despite this progress, leadership in the NFL and other athletic leagues has largely shown reluctance to fully acknowledge the connection between their sports and brain trauma.
CTE primarily impacts the superior frontal cortex, a crucial brain region responsible for cognition and executive functions like working memory, planning, and abstract reasoning. It also frequently affects the amygdala, which plays a vital role in emotional regulation, aggression, and anxiety. Individuals with CTE commonly exhibit symptoms such as difficulty controlling aggression and impulses, varying degrees of dementia, rapid mood swings, impaired judgment, and disorganized behavior.
Historically, most CTE diagnoses have been made in athletes who participated in contact and collision sports such as football for 15 to 20 years, enduring countless head impacts throughout their careers. However, researchers emphasize a significant selection bias in CTE studies: families often choose to donate brains for examination precisely because their loved ones displayed symptoms of brain disease.
With increased understanding of CTE, more families are now donating the brains of younger athletes for study. A subset of these younger individuals have also been found to have CTE, though typically in less severe forms and at lower rates compared to older athletes. At 27, Shane Tamura represents a new addition to this expanding group.
Regardless of an individual’s age, researchers remain cautious about directly attributing specific actions, especially extreme ones like murder or suicide, solely to CTE. They stress that a multitude of other complex factors often contribute to such tragic decisions.
Dr. Ann McKee, who directs the Boston University CTE Center and has examined thousands of brains from athletes, soldiers, and individuals exposed to brain trauma, acknowledges that the precise connection between violent impulsive behavior and CTE is still poorly understood, underscoring the urgent need for further research.
“Damage to the frontal lobes can impair decision-making and judgment,” she recently explained. “It can also trigger impulsivity and episodes of rage, suggesting a potential link between brain injury and such behaviors.”
Numerous high-profile instances involving former football players committing violent offenses have captured national attention. A prominent example is Aaron Hernandez, a former New England Patriots tight end convicted of murder who later died by suicide in prison at age 27. His brain revealed an unusually severe form of CTE, with damage comparable to that found in much older players in their 60s.
Similarly, Phillip Adams, who tragically killed six people before taking his own life in Rock Hill, S.C., in 2021, was also found to have an “unusually severe” stage of CTE. He was 32 years old and had played six seasons in the NFL.
Other former NFL players, including Dave Duerson, who died by suicide, intentionally chose to shoot themselves in the chest to ensure their brains would be preserved for scientific study. Duerson, too, left a note requesting brain examination.
However, researchers caution that these individual cases do not necessarily reflect the experiences of the wider population living with CTE.
Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, recently told The Times, “I would never draw a direct line between someone’s brain pathology and any specific violent act, because the majority of people who have C.T.E. never committed anything like this.”
The risk of developing CTE was once thought to be exclusive to individuals who endured years of professional contact sports like football, rugby, or boxing, accumulating countless head impacts. Yet, recent diagnoses have revealed CTE in younger athletes across various contact sports, even those who never reached professional or, in some instances, even college-level play.
A 2023 Boston University study investigated the brains of 152 contact-sport athletes who passed away before the age of 30, whose families harbored concerns about brain disease. The study revealed that over 40% of these athletes showed evidence of CTE. The majority had competed at high school or college levels at most, and of the 63 athletes diagnosed with CTE, 48 had played football.
Like their older counterparts, these younger athletes exhibited the tau protein—a hallmark of CTE—in specific brain regions. However, the tau concentration was lower than that observed in older athletes. Interestingly, the cognitive symptoms experienced by these young athletes were similar to those of other youth athletes who did not test positive for CTE. Researchers suggest this could indicate that the reduced tau levels were not the primary cause of their symptoms, implying other contributing factors might be at play.
Professor Gil Rabinovici, a neurology and radiology expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who is actively developing imaging methods to diagnose dementia and CTE in living individuals, stated, “The overarching message is that our scientific understanding of what drives symptoms in these younger players is limited, and whether those symptoms are definitively linked to brain trauma or other factors remains unclear. It is crucial to explore non-tau related brain changes, and we must exercise extreme caution when attributing specific behaviors solely to findings in the brain.”
Without a definitive live test for CTE, athletes may, much like Tamura, assume their cognitive challenges stem from the disease. Dr. Rabinovici cited a survey where 34.4 percent of 4,180 former professional football players believed they suffered from CTE, based on symptoms such as headaches, cognitive impairment, depression, and suicidal ideation.
According to his mother and New York police officials, Tamura was prescribed medication for anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. His suicide notes clearly indicated an obsession with brain injuries, and he firmly believed his deteriorating mental health was a direct consequence of playing football and sustaining numerous head impacts.
Dr. Rabinovici and fellow researchers have dedicated years to developing a diagnostic test for CTE in living individuals. Current promising avenues include blood tests and advanced brain imaging capable of identifying the tau protein in targeted brain regions. He described progress on this crucial research as “slow and steady.”
Following years of public relations challenges and increasing scientific evidence linking football to CTE, the NFL’s lead health and safety official publicly acknowledged this connection in 2016. Since then, the league has actively encouraged children to consider alternatives to traditional tackle football, advocating for safer tackling techniques and promoting flag football instead.