The shooter in Manhattan, New York, had the NFL offices as his target, but an unexpected move in his operation prevented him from reaching the league’s headquarters, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday.

More details revealed about the New York incident

According to CNN, the attacker was identified as Shane Devon Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas. It was established that he drove across the country in the days leading up to the attack and arrived in New York on Monday afternoon, as reported by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed. The Police Department reported that Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a note found on his body indicated that his primary target was the NFL offices due to a “grudge” related to a supposed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) condition.

The NFL offices in Manhattan are located between the fifth and eighth floors of a 44-story building. Tamura took an elevator to the 33rd floor, where the offices of Rudin Management, the building’s property management company, are located.

Tamura played high school football

Shane Tamura, 27, was a standout varsity football player at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita and Granada Hills Charter. Tamura played for three years at Golden Valley in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita before transferring to Granada Hills Charter School for his final year in 2015. He did not play in the NFL.

What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?

According to information cited by Mundo Deportivo from the Mayo Clinic, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disorder caused by repeated head injuries. This condition leads to progressive brain degeneration due to the death of nerve cells and worsens over time. Currently, the only way to definitively diagnose CTE is through a post-mortem brain autopsy.

Shane Tamura’s case is not the first linked to the potential effects of CTE in football. Various studies have highlighted the high prevalence of this disease among those who have played the sport professionally. In 2023, an analysis by the Boston University CTE Center found signs of the disease in 345 out of 376 brains of former NFL players examined, representing nearly 92% of cases. Even more striking was a 2017 study published in JAMA, which indicated that 99% of the brains of NFL players analyzed showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.