NFL commissioner Roger Goodell honored the hero NYPD officer, Didarul Islam, who lost his life Monday night when a crazed gunman stormed the league’s headquarters in Manhattan.
Four people were killed when shooter Shane Tamura of Las Vegas entered the Midtown skyscraper with an AR-15 rifle and opened fire, before taking his own life.
An NFL employee, identified as 41-year-old Craig Clementi, was also wounded in the carnage.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addresses the media at a press conference at the NFL football owners meeting on May 21, 2025, in Eagan, Minn. AP“A gunman committed an unspeakable act of violence in our building at 345 Park Avenue. One of our employees was seriously injured in this attack,” Goodell said in the statement to employees.
“He is currently in the hospital and in stable condition. NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family.”
The commissioner said Islam, who was a father of two with a third child on the way, “gave his life to protect others.”
“We are deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively, and to Officer Islam, who gave his life to protect others,” Goodell said.
The statement told New York-based employees to “work remotely” on Tuesday, or “take the day off” in the wake of the shooting.
“There will be an increased security presence at 345 Park Avenue in the days and weeks to come,” he wrote. “Every one of you is a valued member of the NFL family. We will get through this together.”
Tamura, 27, was carrying a note in his pocket that expressed grievances with the NFL and claimed he suffered from CTE — a brain injury linked to head trauma, sources said.
The missive chillingly referenced former NFL star Terry Long, the Pittsburgh Steelers player who was diagnosed with CTE after downing antifreeze to kill himself.
Didarul Islam NYPD“Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,” the note stated, according to sources.
“Please study brain for CTE. I’m sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us,” it continued.
Tamura, a former high school linebacker, had a “documented mental health history,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday night.
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A rifle case with several rounds, ammunition magazines, a loaded revolver and medication were found in a BMW registered to the gunman.
The vehicle had been driven across the country since Saturday, through Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa, Tisch said.
It was spotted in Columbia, New Jersey, at 4:24 p.m., just two hours before the shooting.
Security footage shows Tamura getting out of the double-parked black BMW carrying an M4 rifle.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
“The building security camera footage shows the shooter enter the lobby, turn right and immediately open fire on an NYPD officer,” Tisch said.
Tamura then shot a woman taking cover behind a pillar and fired at others before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor, where he opened fire, killing another person, Tisch said.
Other tenants of the building include Blackstone, KPMG and Rudin Management.
Former classmates of Tamura in Southern California said they were stunned to hear of his reported crimes. “You never would have thought violence was something you’d associate with him,” ex-teammate Caleb Clarke said. “Everything he said was a joke.”
