Minutes of Madness: Inside the Manhattan Skyscraper Massacre

On a humid Monday evening in Manhattan, as workers rushed home and city lights blinked on across the skyline, a scene of unspeakable horror unfolded at 345 Park Avenue. In what has now become New York City’s deadliest mass shooting in over two decades, a heavily armed man entered the 44-story office building and took four innocent lives before turning the rifle on himself.

The shooter was 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura, a Las Vegas security guard who left behind a trail of cryptic notes, 827 rounds of ammunition, and an unanswered question echoing across a stunned nation: why?

From Vegas to Violence

Tamura’s path to carnage began days earlier. Surveillance images captured his black BMW crossing state lines from Nevada to the East Coast. License plate readers tracked his journey through Colorado, Nebraska, Indiana, and finally New Jersey—hours before the rampage.

He didn’t show up for work on Sunday at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, where he was employed as a surveillance guard. Instead, he was driving eastward with a modified M4 semi-automatic rifle and a loaded .357 magnum revolver in his possession.

By 6:26 p.m. Monday, Tamura was double-parked outside the Park Avenue skyscraper. One minute later, he was inside.

Police officers and emergency vehicles are seen in a street as police respond to a shooting incident in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York on July 28.

The First Shot

The first to die was 36-year-old NYPD Officer Didarul Islam. A father of two with another child on the way, Islam was stationed in the lobby when Tamura entered and gunned him down at point-blank range.

Within seconds, bullets tore through the space. Craig Clementi, a finance worker for the NFL, was hit next—yet managed to call 911 and warn his colleagues upstairs. Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, 43, was fatally struck while attempting to take cover. Aland Etienne, a 46-year-old security guard, was critically wounded and collapsed behind the desk console.

Tamura bypassed elevators leading to the NFL’s offices and instead took one to the 33rd floor—home to Rudin Management. Police believe he may have intended to attack the NFL but ended up on the wrong floor.

A New Jersey State Police real-time crime center photo, obtained by CNN, shows Tamura’s black BMW on Interstate 80 in Columbia, New Jersey, at 4:24 p.m. ET on Monday, July 28, two hours before the shooting.

A Final Stand

On the 33rd floor, Tamura found locked doors, bulletproof glass, and Kevlar-lined “safe rooms” built for this very nightmare. Office cleaner Sebije Nelovic locked herself in a closet as Tamura opened fire and attempted to breach the fortified hallway.

Julia Hyman, 27, a young Rudin employee working late, exited a bathroom-turned-safe-room and walked into Tamura’s line of fire. She was shot in the back and later died at her desk. Seconds later, Tamura turned the gun on himself.

Chaos and Response

By then, the NYPD had mobilized its full might—Emergency Service Units stormed the building, SWAT teams secured perimeters, and surveillance teams pored over camera footage. Thanks to a rapid photo alert system built under Commissioner Jessica Tisch, every officer had a real-time image of Tamura within minutes.

Inside the lobby, 23 spent casings and fragments littered the floor. On the 33rd floor, another 24 shell casings and 15 bullet fragments were recovered. Tamura had used most of two 30-round magazines in less than ten minutes.

This image from surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press shows Shane Tamura outside a Manhattan office building on Monday, July 28 in New York.

A Systemic Failure?

Law enforcement officials later revealed that Tamura had a prior arrest and had been placed under psychiatric hold—twice. Yet he was still able to legally obtain a modified assault weapon, a revolver, and nearly 900 rounds of ammunition. A gun dealer in Las Vegas confirmed selling him a trigger modification in June. That same dealer also reported Tamura’s intent to buy hundreds of rounds of .223 ammo.

The M4 rifle Tamura used was traced to a coworker who sold him the weapon and the BMW. The coworker has not responded to media inquiries.

A City Grieves

New Yorkers left flowers, candles, and handwritten notes outside 345 Park Avenue on Tuesday. Families mourned. Colleagues clung to each other in disbelief. The building, usually a symbol of power and productivity, became a crime scene.

“We ran active shooter drills for years,” one Rudin employee said, “but nothing prepares you for hearing it actually happen.”

In the aftermath, public debate swirled around gun laws, mental health screenings, and whether anything could have prevented the tragedy. But for the victims and their loved ones, those answers may never be enough.