The individual responsible for a horrific July shooting at a Midtown Manhattan office building, which claimed four lives, has been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.). This devastating degenerative brain disease is strongly associated with repetitive head injuries, commonly seen in contact sports like football, as confirmed by the New York City medical examiner’s office.
C.T.E., a condition only detectable after death, was identified in the brain of Shane Tamura, who ended his own life after the deadly rampage at 345 Park Avenue.
A statement from the medical examiner explicitly stated, “Unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E., was found in the decedent’s brain tissue.” The report further noted that these findings align with the classification of “low-stage C.T.E.” based on current medical consensus.
Tamura, once a high school football player, took his own life with a chest shot after fatally shooting four individuals. He left a note explicitly blaming the National Football League for allegedly concealing the true impact of C.T.E. and requested that his brain be examined.
Authorities revealed that the 27-year-old Tamura traveled from his Las Vegas apartment to Manhattan, specifically targeting the building at 345 Park Avenue, which serves as the NFL headquarters. This location became the site of his violent outburst, ultimately leaving five people dead, including himself.
Excerpts from Tamura’s note, released by police, contained strong accusations against the National Football League. He asserted that the league, whose offices are located at the scene of the shooting on 345 Park Avenue, deliberately suppressed information about the sport’s inherent dangers for financial gain.
Tamura’s family has chosen not to comment on these recent findings at this time.
The revelation about Tamura’s brain health reignites urgent concerns regarding the potential long-term hazards associated with playing tackle football, even when limited to youth participation.
Despite playing football only through high school, Tamura carried a note explicitly mentioning C.T.E. and accusing the NFL of hiding the risks of brain trauma for profit. Police believe his motive was vengeance against the league, whose headquarters were situated in the targeted building.
Over the last twenty years, numerous former athletes from football, boxing, and hockey have been diagnosed with C.T.E., significantly raising public awareness of the dangers inherent in these sports. Researchers have made considerable strides in understanding the disease and its symptoms. Despite this, leaders of the NFL and other professional leagues have often resisted acknowledging a direct connection between their sports and brain trauma.
C.T.E. predominantly impacts crucial brain regions like the superior frontal cortex, which governs cognition, executive function, working memory, planning, and abstract reasoning. It also frequently affects the amygdala, vital for emotional regulation, managing aggression, and anxiety. Individuals with C.T.E. often experience challenges with impulse and aggression control, varying degrees of dementia, severe mood swings, impaired judgment, and general disorientation.
Historically, most C.T.E. diagnoses have been made in athletes who endured 15 to 20 years in high-impact sports like football, accumulating countless head impacts. However, researchers highlight a significant selection bias in these studies: families typically donate brains for examination when their loved ones displayed symptoms associated with brain disease.
With increasing understanding of C.T.E., families are now donating the brains of younger athletes, leading to more diagnoses in this demographic, though at a lower incidence. These younger cases are generally less severe than those observed in older athletes, and 27-year-old Tamura now falls into this expanding group.
Scientists remain cautious about directly attributing specific actions, such as murder or suicide, solely to C.T.E., regardless of the individual’s age. They emphasize that numerous other factors could play a role in such complex decisions.
Dr. Ann McKee, who heads the Boston University C.T.E. Center and has examined thousands of brains from athletes, soldiers, and individuals exposed to brain trauma, notes that the connection between violent impulsive behavior and C.T.E. is still poorly understood, requiring further research.
“Damage to the frontal lobes can impair decision-making and judgment,” she recently explained. “It may also lead to impulsivity and episodes of rage, suggesting a potential link between brain injury and these behaviors.”
High-profile instances of former football players committing violent offenses have captured national attention. A prominent example is Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end, who was convicted of murder and later died by suicide in prison. At just 27 years old, Hernandez’s brain showed C.T.E. damage comparable to individuals in their sixties, highlighting the disease’s severe potential.
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’ form of C.T.E. He was 32 and had spent six seasons in the NFL.
Remarkably, some former NFL players, such as Dave Duerson, who died by suicide, intentionally aimed their self-inflicted gunshots to the chest to ensure their brains could be preserved for C.T.E. research. Duerson, too, left a note requesting a brain study.
However, researchers emphasize that these extreme cases may not accurately reflect the experiences of the wider population living with C.T.E.
“Establishing a direct link between brain pathology and a specific violent act is something I would never do,” stated Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, in a recent interview. “The vast majority of individuals with C.T.E. never commit such acts.”
For a long time, C.T.E. was thought to primarily affect professional athletes in sports like football, rugby, or boxing who endured years of countless head impacts. Yet, recent diagnoses have emerged in younger athletes across various contact sports, even those who never played professionally or at the collegiate level.
A 2023 study by Boston University investigated the brains of 152 contact-sport athletes who passed away before age 30, whose families harbored concerns about brain disease. Strikingly, over 40% of these athletes showed signs of C.T.E., with most having competed no further than high school or college. Out of the 63 diagnosed with C.T.E. in this group, 48 were football players.
Consistent with findings in older athletes, these younger individuals also displayed the tau protein, a hallmark of C.T.E., in specific brain regions. However, the tau concentration was lower in younger athletes, and their cognitive symptoms were indistinguishable from those of other young athletes without C.T.E. Researchers suggest this might imply that the reduced tau levels were not the primary cause of their symptoms, and other factors could be at play.
“We have a limited scientific understanding of what truly causes symptoms in these younger players, and whether it’s solely linked to brain trauma or other underlying issues,” explained Gil Rabinovici, a professor of neurology and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, who is actively developing imaging methods to diagnose dementia and C.T.E. in living individuals. He stressed the importance of investigating non-tau-related brain changes, advising, “We must be very cautious when attributing behavior solely to what we observe in the brain.”
Without a definitive live test for C.T.E., athletes, much like Tamura, might attribute their cognitive issues to the disease. Dr. Rabinovici highlighted a survey of 4,180 former professional football players, revealing that 34.4% suspected they had C.T.E. due to symptoms such as headaches, cognitive impairment, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
According to his mother and New York police officials, Tamura was on prescription medication for anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. His suicide notes clearly indicated a preoccupation with brain injuries, as he firmly believed his deteriorating mental health stemmed from his football past and repeated head impacts.
For years, Dr. Rabinovici and his colleagues have been dedicated to creating a diagnostic test for C.T.E. in living individuals. Promising avenues include blood tests and advanced brain imaging techniques capable of detecting the tau protein in precise brain regions. He described progress on this solution as ‘slow and steady.’
Following years of PR challenges and increasing evidence linking football to C.T.E., the NFL’s highest health and safety executive finally acknowledged the connection in 2016. Since then, the league has actively discouraged children from playing traditional tackle football, instead advocating for safer tackling techniques and promoting flag football.