Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, who killed four people, including two Jewish women, in Manhattan on July 28, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease commonly referred to as CTE, according to the New York City medical examiner’s office.
“CTE has been found in the brains of people who played U.S. football and other contact sports, including boxing. It also may occur in military members who were exposed to explosive blasts,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “Symptoms of CTE are thought to include trouble with thinking and emotions, physical symptoms and other behaviors. It’s thought that symptoms develop years to decades after head trauma occurs.”
Among the changes observed in those with CTE are “impulsive behavior” and “aggression,” according to the clinic, a major medical center in Rochester, N.Y.
Tamura entered a building, which included the National Football League headquarters, on Park Avenue in Manhattan and fired multiple times with a rifle before killing himself. Wesley LePatner, 43, and Julia Hyman, 27, both of whom were Jewish, were among his victims.
Law enforcement has not stated publicly that there is any suspicion that the attacker targeted Jews. Didarul Islam, an off-duty police officer, and Aland Etienne, another security guard, were also killed.
Tamura stated in a suicide note that his mental illness might have been caused by CTE due to playing football. He asked that his brain be tested. On Friday, the medical examiner’s office stated that its findings “correspond with the classification of low-stage CTE, according to current consensus criteria.”
“The science around this condition continues to evolve, and the physical and mental manifestations of CTE remain under study,” the officer said.
LePatner was active in the New York Jewish community at Park East Synagogue and helped lead the Altneu Synagogue. A senior managing director at Blackstone, LePatner served on the board of the UJA-Federation of New York and received the 2023 UJA Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award.
