The individual who tragically took four lives in a Midtown Manhattan office building in July was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a devastating degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head injuries common in football and other contact sports. This diagnosis comes from the New York City medical examiner’s office.
C.T.E., as it’s known, can only be identified after death. The gunman, Shane Tamura, ended his own life after the violent spree at 345 Park Avenue, which also claimed four other lives.
According to an official statement, the medical examiner discovered “unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as C.T.E., in the brain tissue of the decedent.” The findings classify this as “low-stage C.T.E., according to current consensus criteria.”
Mr. Tamura, a former high school football player, shot himself in the chest after the attack and left a note. In it, he expressed anger at the National Football League, accusing the organization of concealing the true effects of C.T.E.
Police reports indicate that Mr. Tamura, 27, traveled from his Las Vegas apartment to Manhattan, specifically targeting the building at 345 Park Avenue, which houses the N.F.L. headquarters. The site became the scene of a shooting that ultimately resulted in five deaths.
Excerpts from the note, released by police, further revealed his strong condemnation of the National Football League. He asserted that the league had prioritized profits over public safety, deliberately hiding the risks of brain trauma associated with the sport.
Mr. Tamura’s family chose not to comment on the findings.
The revelations about Mr. Tamura’s brain condition reignite critical discussions regarding the potential long-term dangers of playing tackle football, even at the youth level.
Although Mr. Tamura’s football career concluded after high school, he carried a note explicitly mentioning C.T.E. and alleging that the N.F.L. had hidden the dangers of brain trauma for financial gain. Authorities noted his quest for vengeance against the league, whose offices are located in the building where the shooting occurred.
Over the past two decades, numerous former football players, boxers, and hockey players have been diagnosed with C.T.E. This has significantly raised awareness of the inherent risks in these sports, prompting researchers to deepen their understanding of the disease and its diverse symptoms. However, leaders within the N.F.L. and other sports leagues have generally been reluctant to formally acknowledge the direct correlation between their sports and brain trauma.
C.T.E. frequently impacts the superior frontal cortex, a brain region crucial for cognitive functions like working memory, planning, and abstract reasoning. It also often affects the amygdala, which plays a vital role in emotional regulation, aggression, and anxiety. Common symptoms include difficulty controlling aggression and impulses, varying degrees of dementia, mood swings, impaired judgment, and disorganized behavior.
The majority of C.T.E. cases have been identified in former athletes who engaged in contact and collision sports, such as football, for 15 to 20 years, likely enduring thousands of head impacts throughout their careers. Researchers caution that studies on C.T.E. are prone to selection bias, as most families who donate loved ones’ brains do so because symptoms were present.
As scientific understanding of the disease advances, families have increasingly donated the brains of younger athletes. Some of these younger individuals have also been diagnosed with C.T.E., though typically at less severe stages than those found in older athletes. At 27, Mr. Tamura joins this expanding group.
Regardless of age, researchers maintain caution when linking C.T.E. directly to specific actions, especially violent acts like murder or suicide, as numerous other factors can influence such decisions.
Dr. Ann McKee, director of the Boston University C.T.E. Center, who has examined thousands of brains from athletes, soldiers, and others with brain trauma, emphasizes that the link between violent impulsive behavior and C.T.E. remains largely unexplored and requires further investigation.
She recently commented, “There is damage to the frontal lobes, which can damage decision making and judgment. It can also cause impulsivity and rage behaviors, so it’s possible that there’s some connection between brain injury and these behaviors.”
Several high-profile cases involving former football players committing violent crimes have captured national attention. A notable example is Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end, who was convicted of murder and later died by suicide in jail. Mr. Hernandez, who was also 27 at the time of his death, was found to have a severe form of C.T.E., with damage comparable to that seen in players in their 60s.
Phillip Adams, who fatally shot six people and then himself in Rock Hill, S.C., in 2021, also had an “unusually severe” form of C.T.E. He was 32 and had played six seasons in the N.F.L.
Other former N.F.L. players who committed suicide, such as Dave Duerson, deliberately targeted their chests to preserve their brains for study, leaving notes with their requests.
However, researchers stress that these cases may not be representative of the wider population living with C.T.E.
“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,” stated Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, in a recent interview.
For a long time, the risk of developing C.T.E. was thought to be limited to those who endured years of professional football, rugby, or boxing, sustaining countless head impacts. Yet, more recently, diagnoses have emerged in younger athletes across various contact sports, including some who never played professionally or even collegiately.
A 2023 Boston University study meticulously examined the brains of 152 contact-sport athletes who passed away before age 30, whose families had expressed concerns about brain disease. Over 40 percent of these athletes showed evidence of C.T.E. Most had competed no higher than high school or college level. Among the 63 diagnosed with C.T.E., 48 had played football.
These younger athletes, similar to older ones, exhibited tau protein in specific brain regions, a hallmark of C.T.E. However, the tau protein was less concentrated in younger individuals, and their cognitive symptoms mirrored those of other young athletes without a C.T.E. diagnosis. This suggests that the lower tau levels might not be the sole cause of their symptoms, implying other contributing factors, according to researchers.
“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,” explained Gil Rabinovici, a professor of neurology and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is currently developing imaging techniques to diagnose dementia and C.T.E. in living patients. “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 test for C.T.E. in living individuals, athletes, much like Mr. Tamura, may wrongly attribute their cognitive difficulties to the disease. Dr. Rabinovici referenced a survey of 4,180 former professional football players, revealing that 34.4 percent believed they had C.T.E. based on symptoms such as headaches, cognitive impairment, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
Mr. Tamura received prescriptions for anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, as confirmed by his mother and New York police officials. His suicide notes indicated a preoccupation with brain injuries, and he firmly believed his deteriorating mental health stemmed from playing football and enduring repeated head impacts.
Dr. Rabinovici and his research team have dedicated years to developing a diagnostic test for C.T.E. in living patients. Promising avenues include blood tests and advanced brain imaging techniques capable of identifying the tau protein in specific areas of the brain. Progress on this solution is described as “slow and steady.”
After enduring years of public relations challenges and increasing scientific evidence linking football to C.T.E., the N.F.L.’s leading health and safety official publicly acknowledged this connection in 2016. Since then, the league has actively encouraged children to move away from traditional tackle football, promoting safer tackling techniques and emphasizing flag football as an alternative.