At least five reportedly dead after New York City shooting in Midtown
Police said the scene, an office tower block at 345 Park Avenue home to hedge fund giant Blackstone, auditor KPMG and the NFL, had been "contained and the lone shooter is dead," without providing details about the identity of the suspect. A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted, while another described a gunman going floor to floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.
"Four people, including a New York Police Department officer, were killed in today's shooting in Midtown Manhattan," a law enforcement source told broadcaster CNN, adding that the suspected gunman died from what is believed to be a "self-inflicted injury."
Mayor Eric Adams said on X that an officer had been "struck down" and expressed his "deepest sympathies" to the family of the officer. "At this time, the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized," police commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote on X. Police say the gunman had a "documented mental health history," but the motive is still unknown.
Another man was seriously injured and remains in critical condition, said Adams.
Police later identified the suspect as Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, and said he fatally shot himself. The officer who was killed was a 36-year-old, who was an immigrant from Bangladesh and had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years. "He died as he lived. A hero," Tisch said.
Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.
"Everyone was confused with like, 'wait, what's going on?' And then someone finally realized that it's online, that someone walked in with a machine gun," said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.
"He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here. "You would think it won't happen to you, and then it does."
'Floor by floor'
Another witness, a woman who declined to give her name as she left the vicinity of the shooting, told AFP "I was in the building. He went floor by floor," while a second woman wept as she left the scene. Witnesses told AFP the incident happened in an office block that is home to the Blackstone investment company.
Help us improve Le Monde in English
Dear reader,
We'd love to hear your thoughts on Le Monde in English! Take this quick survey to help us improve it for you.
Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests. A number of ambulances had gathered in the vicinity and several helicopters hovered above the scene. Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.
The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters and financial and law firms.
Earlier the mayor had told New Yorkers that "there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting. The frontrunner in the race for mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X that he was "heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer... in my thoughts."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
6 minutes ago
- Local France
Prosecutors call for PSG's Achraf Hakimi to face rape trial
The Nanterre prosecutor's office told AFP that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court. "It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order," the prosecutor's office told AFP in a statement. Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG's run to their first Champions League title, the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May. Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic progress to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March, 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman. Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday. The woman went to a police station following the encounter alleging rape and was questioned by police. Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player. She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram. On the night in question she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non-consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time. She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up. Advertisement 'Attempted extortion' Contacted by AFP after Friday's development Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as "incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case's elements". "We, along with Achraf Hakimi, remain as calm as we were at the start of the proceedings. "If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal," she continued. According to Colin, her client had "been the target of an attempted extortion". "Nothing in this case suggests an attempted extortion," Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, said. "My client welcomes this news with immense relief," she told AFP. "We will not tolerate any smear or destabilisation campaign, as is unfortunately still too often the case for women who have the courage to report the rape of which they are victims," she added. The son of a cleaning lady and a street vendor, both Moroccans who have lived in Spain since the 1980s, Hakimi was born in Getafe, a southern suburb of Madrid. Hakimi came through the youth system at Real Madrid before joining Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in 2018. He went on to make 73 appearances for the German club. He moved to Inter Milan in 2020 and then on to PSG in 2021 where he has established himself as an integral part of the team. In Qatar, Hakimi was a cornerstone of the Morocco team that became the first African or Arab nation to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.
LeMonde
15 hours ago
- LeMonde
Jury finds Tesla partly responsible for deadly Autopilot crash case
A Miami jury has decided that Elon Musk's car company Tesla was partly responsible for a deadly crash in Florida involving its Autopilot driver assist technology and must pay the victims more than $200 million in damages. The federal jury held that Tesla bore significant responsibility because its technology failed and that not all the blame can be put on a reckless driver, even one who admitted he was distracted by his cell phone before hitting a young couple out gazing at the stars. The decision comes as Musk is seeking to convince Americans his cars are safe enough to drive on their own as he plans to roll out a driverless taxi service in several cities in the coming months. The decision ends a four-year long case remarkable not just in its outcome, but that it even made it to trial. Many similar cases against Tesla have been dismissed and, when that didn't happen, settled by the company to avoid the spotlight of a trial. The case also included startling charges by lawyers for the family of the deceased, 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon, and for her injured boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. They claimed Tesla either hid or lost key evidence, including data and video recorded seconds before the accident. Tesla has previously faced criticism that it is slow to cough up crucial data by relatives of other victims in Tesla crashes, accusations that the car company has denied. In this case, the plaintiffs showed Tesla had the evidence all along − despite its repeated denials − by hiring a forensic data expert who dug it up. Tesla said it made a mistake after being shown the evidence and honestly hadn't thought it was there. "Today's verdict is wrong," Tesla said in a statement, "and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology," claiming that the plaintiffs concocted a story "blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility." In addition to a punitive award of $200 million, the jury said Tesla must also pay $43 million in compensatory damages, bringing the total borne by the company to $243 million. Tesla said it will appeal. Help us improve Le Monde in English Dear reader, We'd love to hear your thoughts on Le Monde in English! Take this quick survey to help us improve it for you. It's not clear how much of a hit to Tesla's reputation for safety the verdict in the Miami case will make. Tesla has vastly improved its technology since the crash on a dark, rural road in Key Largo, Florida, in 2019. But the issue of trust in the company came up several times in the case, including in closing arguments Thursday. The plaintiffs' lead lawyer, Brett Schreiber, said Tesla's decision to even use the term Autopilot showed it was willing to mislead people and take big risks with their lives because the system only helps drivers with lane changes, slowing a car and other tasks − falling far short of driving the car itself. Schreiber said other automakers use terms like "driver assist" and "copilot" to make sure drivers don't rely too much on the technology. "Words matter," Schreiber said. "And if someone is playing fast and loose with words, they're playing fast and loose with information and facts."
LeMonde
17 hours ago
- LeMonde
French prosecutors seek trial for PSG's Achraf Hakimi over rape charge
French prosecutors on Friday, August 1, called for Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Moroccan international denies. The Nanterre prosecutor's office told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court. "It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order," the prosecutor's office told AFP in a statement. Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG's run to their first Champions League title, the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May. Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman. Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday. On the night in question she said she had traveled to his house in d by police. Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player. She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram. Contacted by AFP after Friday's development, Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the night in question she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time. She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up. Contacted by AFP after Friday's development Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as "incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case's elements". "If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal," she added. "My client welcomes this news with immense relief," Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, told AFP.
