Two hours of terror in a New York skyscraper

For hundreds of employees at 345 Park Avenue, an emblematic 44 -storey skyscraper in the heart of Midtown Manhattan – a district filled with offices of large companies – Monday evening has suddenly become like no other.

While the commuters returned home in the sweltering evening in July, the workers of the Park Avenue tower ran for their lives, barricading conference rooms with tables and sending pre -emptional farewell messages.

“I sent a text to my parents:” I like them “,” said Jessica Chen, who works on the second floor, “the media explained to us. “Nothing can describe this feeling.”

Ms. Chen and others in the skyscraper were stimulated by the unexpected sound of the shots from the hall.

The shots would kill four people, including a New York police officer, as well as others in the hall and the 33rd floor. A man remains in critical condition in the hospital.

A few moments before chaos, around 6.30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. BST), a 27 -year -old went to one of the busiest areas in Manhattan, ending a car trip through the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa.

According to officials, Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, played his BMW Black on Park Avenue – a few pies of houses from the Rockefeller Center and the Cathedral Saint -Patrick Cathedral.

Wearing a jacket, a buttoned shirt and sunglasses, he handled an assault-style rifle with his right arm, walking with determination towards the skyscraper where he knew that the National Football League (NFL) was based.

But he would never go to this office.

Instead, when he reached the doors of 345 Park, which extends a whole New York block, he began to “pulverize” the hall of fire, according to New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch.

At first, Tamura passed right in front of a parked officer. But then, he turned to the right, saw him and dismissed, killing the 36 -year -old New York police officer Didarul Islam, who leaves behind two children and a pregnant woman, said the mayor of New York, Eric Adams.

“He was killed in the entrance to the right as soon as he entered the building,” said Adams.

Tamura lost shortly before shooting another woman hiding behind a pillar, heading in the hall and continuing to shoot, according to the authorities. Wesley Lepatner, who worked upstairs of the Blackstone Financial Company, was killed.

“Our prayers are with her husband, children and family,” said society.

An NFL employee was “seriously injured” during the attack, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote. Craig Clementi, who worked in the finance department, was on the way back when he was killed, his stepfather Robert Hunter said in the New York Daily News. He is now recovering from surgery.

While the shots continued to ring, another security guard tried in vain to activate an alarm system to deactivate elevators, potentially preventing more carnage.

But the guard, Aland Etienne, was “murdered” while he was hiding behind the counter, said Adams.

After that, the shooter headed for an elevator. While waiting for the elevator, a woman emerged and was somehow authorized to leave unscathed, the police said.

But the elevator he embarked would not take him where he wanted.

He had gone to the bad elevator bank and arrived at the NFL offices, but to the offices of the 33rd floor of the real estate company which owned the building, Rudin Management.

While the chaos took place in the hall, the building employees sent frenzied messages by e-mail and Microsoft teams that there was a shooter below, a blackstone worker at the Wall Street Journal told.

Ms. Chen told ABC News that she was watching a presentation on the second floor of the skyscraper with around 150 other people when they heard the first shots.

“Some came out in the back door, in the street,” she said. “Other people, including me, we have run in the conference room.”

A circulating photo on social networks seems to show the employees of Blackstone stacking sofas, offices and other furniture in front of a panic.

The NFL offices, on the other hand, received messages from the league warning them of gunshots, according to ESPN. Said to change their phones to be silent and hide until the arrival of the police, they waited for a shooter who would never reach his target.

On the square outside the Park Avenue tower, the police flooded the premises.

Nekeisha Lewis could hear the sounds of rapid shots from the interior of the skyscraper, while sitting nearby with a friend. She could see the shooter through the glass, she told NBC News.

Before she knows, someone ran from the “very hard” building to him and started to cry for help, saying he had been shot, said Lewis.

“Because of the strength he was running, I couldn’t believe it. He had what looked like … an injury out of the back.”

She joined the others, hiding behind a wall. In the meantime, dozens of workers gradually rushed from the building while holding their hands over their heads while they were evacuating.

Meanwhile, inside, Tamura traveled the 33rd floor, pulling balls “while he was traveling,” said Ms. Tisch. He pulled and killed his last victim.

Then said the authorities, he walked in a corridor and fired in the chest.

Tamura used an AR -15 style rifle that he had assembled with a lower receiver – or a firearm frame – that a partner bought him.

With teams in two states, investigators are still working to trace Mr. Tamura from Las Vegas to New York.

A note of three disjointed three pages was found on his body.

The shooter wrote that he was suffering from CTE, a brain disease triggered by head injuries like those suffered in military fights and contact sports such as American football.

Tamura, who played football in adolescence – but not professionally, according to friends – “seemed to have blamed the NFL,” said Mayor Adams.

“Study my brain. I’m sorry,” said the note.