NEW YORK (AP) — A man carrying a rifle killed four people at a New York City office tower Monday, including an off-duty New York City police officer, and wounded a fifth before taking his own life, officials said.
The officer who was killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years, police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
“He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Tisch said. “He died as he lived. A hero.”
Police identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, and said he killed himself. He had a ‘documented mental health history,’ but the motive is still unknown, Tisch said.
“We are working to understand why he targeted this particular location,” Tisch said of 345 Park Avenue, a commercial office building whose tenants include the NFL and Rudin Management, as well as finance companies KPMG and Blackstone.
One man was seriously injured and remains in critical condition, Mayor Eric Adams said. Four others got minor injuries attempting to flee the scene.
Adams said officials are still “unraveling” what took place.
Surveillance video shows a man exiting a double-parked BMW and carrying an M4 rifle before he walks toward the building. Tisch said he immediately opened fire on the New York Police Department officer as he entered the building and shot a woman who tried to take cover and then began “spraying” the lobby with gunfire.
The man then made his way to the elevator bank and shot a security guard who was taking cover behind a security desk and shot another man in the lobby, the commissioner said.
The man took the elevator to the 33rd floor to a real estate management company and shot and killed one person on the floor. The man then walked down a hallway and shot himself, the commissioner said.
Officers found a rifle case, a revolver, magazines and ammunition in his car, Tisch said.
She said an initial investigation shows his vehicle traveled across the country through Colorado on July 26, then Nebraska and Iowa on July 27 and arrived in Columbia, New Jersey, as recently as 4:24 p.m. Monday. He drove into New York City shortly thereafter, she said.
No one answered the door at the address listed for Tamura in Las Vegas.
Islam, the killed officer, leaves behind two young boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child, Tisch said.
The New York City Fire Department said emergency crews were called to the Park Avenue office building around 6:30 p.m. for a report of someone shot.
Jessica Chen told ABC News she was watching a presentation with dozens of other people on the second floor when she “heard multiple shots go off in quick succession from the first floor.”
She and others ran into a conference room and barricaded tables against the door.
“We were honestly really, really scared,” she said, adding that she texted her parents to tell them that she loves them.
Local TV footage showed lines of people evacuating the office building with their hands above their heads.
Some finance workers at an office building down the block were picking up dinner at a corner eatery when they heard a loud noise and saw people running.
“It was like a crowd panic,” said Anna Smith, who joined the workers pouring back into the finance office building. They remained there for about two hours before being told they could leave.
Tisch says she believes two officers were working in different parts of the building as part of a program where companies can hire NYPD officers to provide security.
The building where the shooting happened is in a busy area of midtown, located a short walk north from Grand Central Terminal and about a block east of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Through late July, New York City is on pace to have its fewest murders and fewest people hurt by gunfire than any year in recent decades.
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This story has been updated to remove Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan from the list of offices at the Park Avenue building. Both no longer have offices there.
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Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo, Ruth Brown and Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York, Audrey McAvoy from Honolulu, and Ty O'Neil and Rio Yamat from Las Vegas.
Philip Marcelo And Eric Tucker, The Associated Press
