What is CTE? Why this brain disease is behind Manhattan shooting by Shane Tamura
Shane Tamura, the crazed gunman who killed five people inside a Midtown skyscraper that housed many offices, mentioned CTE several times in his long manifesto, which can also be read as a suicide not,e as he ended his life after killing people in the office.
CTE is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma, such as concussions or even sub-concussive hits (blows that don't cause symptoms but still jolt the brain). Football players, boxers, hockey players, military veterans are often diagnosed with this disease.
Tamura claimed that he was suffering from CTE and blamed football for his condition. New York Post reported that in his note, he thanked a documentary on CTE brain injuries and listed the names of several prominent neuroscientists.
'Terry Long, football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,' Tamura wrote. 'You can't go against the NFL, they'll squash you.'
'Please study brain for CTE. I'm sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us," he wrote.
In CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), the brain deteriorates over time due to repeated hits to the head—even if those hits don't cause a full concussion.
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CTE is rare and not completely understood by doctors, and there is no way to diagnose the disease in a living person – doctors can only confirm the disease in an autopsy after death.
The disease has been linked to football, given the contact-heavy, physical nature of the sport.
The note mentioned 'Fainaru brothers' — the two ESPN reporters who co-wrote the 'League of Denial' book. Elsewhere, the names of several doctors were featured on one page, including Dr.
Ann McKee, the chief of neuropathology at BU Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and Dr. Christopher Nowinski, the co-founder of Boston University's CTE Center.
Tamura has been described as a mentally unstable person but there is no history of him professionally playing football. But it is believed that his apparent target was the NFL office, which was at the same building but he did not kill anyone from NFL and ended up killing Wesley LePatner, an executive of Blackstone.
Tamura worked as a security guard at a Las Vegas casino and he did not report to duty Sunday. He drove through several states to reach New York City just hours before the mass shooting. Tamura's car was spotted passing through Colorado on July 26, Nebraska and Iowa on July 27, and Columbia, New Jersey, at 4:24 p.m. Monday. And then he drove into Manhattan.
Cops found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, extra ammunition, magazines, a backpack and medication prescribed to him searching his car.
He had a concealed firearms permit from Las Vegas with a 2027 expiration date.
CTE and football
A 2017 study by Boston University's CTE Center found that of the 111 NFL brains it examined, 110 had some level of CTE.
In September 2024, a study by the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University revealed that out of a sample of 2,000 former NFL players, about a third believed they have CTE.
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