The tragic July shooting in a Midtown Manhattan office building, which claimed four lives, has taken a new, unsettling turn. The perpetrator, Shane Tamura, has been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a severe degenerative brain disease often associated with repetitive head trauma from sports like football. This revelation comes directly from the New York City medical examiner’s office.
CTE can only be definitively identified after death, and in a devastating turn of events, Tamura took his own life following the horrific attack at 345 Park Avenue.
A statement from the medical examiner confirmed “unambiguous diagnostic evidence” of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy within Tamura’s brain tissue. These findings indicate a “low-stage CTE,” aligning with established diagnostic standards.
A former high school football player, Tamura died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest after the spree. He left behind a chilling note, explicitly stating his rage towards the National Football League, accusing it of concealing the severe, long-term effects of CTE. Poignantly, he also requested that his brain undergo examination.
Authorities revealed that the 27-year-old Tamura traveled from his Las Vegas apartment to Manhattan with a specific target in mind: 345 Park Avenue, home to the NFL headquarters. This building, tragically, became the focal point of his deadly rampage, which ultimately resulted in five fatalities, including his own.
The victims of the attack included Didarul Islam, a dedicated Police Department officer; Aland Etienne, a security guard who was at his post; and Wesley LePatner, a senior executive from Blackstone. Craig Clementi, an NFL employee, was also shot but survived his injuries.
Excerpts from Tamura’s note, released by police, contained a furious condemnation of the National Football League. He asserted that the league had knowingly suppressed information about the dangers of the sport, prioritizing financial gain over player safety.
Tamura’s family has, at this time, chosen not to comment on the medical examiner’s findings.
The state of Tamura’s brain reignites a critical discussion about the enduring risks of tackle football, even for those who play only at the youth level.
Despite playing football only through high school, Tamura’s note specifically referenced CTE, reiterating his conviction that the NFL deliberately hid the severe risks of brain trauma. Investigators believe his actions were fueled by a desire for retribution against the league.
Over the last two decades, numerous former athletes from football, boxing, and hockey have been diagnosed with CTE, leading to a heightened public understanding of these sports’ inherent dangers. Despite growing research and awareness, leaders within the NFL and other professional leagues have historically shown reluctance to fully acknowledge the direct connection between their sports and brain trauma.
CTE typically impacts the superior frontal cortex, a crucial region for cognitive and executive functions like working memory, planning, and abstract thought. It also frequently affects the amygdala, which is vital for emotional regulation, aggression, and anxiety. Individuals with CTE commonly exhibit symptoms such as impaired aggression and impulse control, varying degrees of dementia, rapid mood shifts, poor judgment, and disorganization.
While most documented CTE cases involve athletes who participated in high-impact sports like football for 15-20 years, enduring countless head impacts, researchers emphasize a significant selection bias in current studies. Brain donations are often made by families whose loved ones already displayed concerning neurological symptoms.
With increasing understanding of the disease, more families are donating the brains of younger athletes, revealing CTE diagnoses in this demographic, though at a lower incidence and generally less severe than in older players. At 27, Tamura’s case adds to this expanding group of younger individuals affected by the condition.
Despite these findings, researchers maintain caution against directly attributing specific violent acts, including murder or suicide, solely to CTE, recognizing that a multitude of other complex factors can influence such behaviors.
Dr. Ann McKee, who directs the Boston University CTE Center and has extensively studied brains from athletes, soldiers, and others with brain trauma, acknowledges that the connection between violent impulsive behavior and CTE remains largely unknown, underscoring the urgent need for further research.
As she recently explained, damage to the frontal lobes—a hallmark of CTE—can impair decision-making and judgment. This damage may also lead to impulsivity and aggressive outbursts, suggesting a potential, though not fully understood, link between brain injury and these types of behaviors.
High-profile instances of former football players committing violent acts have repeatedly seized national attention. A prominent example is Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots tight end, who was convicted of murder and later committed suicide in prison. At just 27 years old, Hernandez’s brain showed an unusually severe form of CTE, comparable to the damage typically seen in players in their sixties.
Similarly, Phillip Adams, responsible for the fatal shooting of six individuals before taking his own life in Rock Hill, S.C., in 2021, was also found to have an “unusually severe” form of CTE. Adams was 32 and had spent six seasons in the NFL.
Notably, other former NFL players who died by suicide, such as Dave Duerson, intentionally shot themselves in the chest to ensure their brains could be preserved for scientific study. Duerson, like Tamura, left a note requesting this examination.
However, researchers caution that these highly publicized cases may not reflect the experiences of the wider population living with CTE.
Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, emphasized, “I would never draw a direct line between someone’s brain pathology and any specific violent act, because the majority of people who have CTE never committed anything like this.”
For a long time, the risk of developing CTE was thought to be exclusive to individuals who endured years of head impacts in professional sports like football, rugby, or boxing. However, recent diagnoses in younger athletes from various contact sports, some of whom never played professionally or even collegiately, are challenging this perception.
A 2023 Boston University study, which examined the brains of 152 contact-sport athletes who died before age 30 and whose families suspected brain disease, found evidence of CTE in over 40 percent of them. The majority of these individuals had competed no higher than high school or college, with 48 of the 63 CTE-diagnosed cases involving football players.
While these younger athletes, like their older counterparts, exhibited tau protein—a hallmark of CTE—in specific brain regions, the concentration was lower. Interestingly, their cognitive symptoms mirrored those of other young athletes without a CTE diagnosis. This suggests that the reduced tau levels might not be the sole cause of their symptoms, implying that other factors could be at play.
Gil Rabinovici, a professor of neurology and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a pioneer in developing live-patient diagnostic imaging for dementia and CTE, cautioned, “The message here is that there’s less scientific understanding of what’s driving the symptoms in these younger players, and whether it’s related to brain trauma or perhaps other things. It’s going to be important to look at other brain changes that are not tau related. We should be very cautious in trying to attribute their behavior to what we find in the brain.”
Without a definitive diagnostic test for CTE in living individuals, athletes, much like Tamura, may infer that their cognitive struggles are linked to the disease. Dr. Rabinovici referenced a survey where 34.4 percent of 4,180 former professional football players reported believing they had CTE, citing 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 intense preoccupation with brain injuries, and he firmly believed his deteriorating mental health stemmed from his football playing days and the cumulative head trauma he sustained.
Dr. Rabinovici and his fellow researchers are diligently working to create a diagnostic test for CTE in living patients. Promising avenues include blood tests and advanced brain imaging techniques designed to detect the tau protein in affected brain regions. He describes this crucial research as a “slow and steady” endeavor.
Following years of damaging public relations crises and an undeniable accumulation of evidence linking football to CTE, the NFL’s lead health and safety official finally acknowledged this connection in 2016. The league has since initiated efforts to guide children away from traditional tackle football, promoting safer tackling techniques and advocating for flag football as an alternative.