New York detectives head to gunman's home in Nevada amid calls for gun control
Authorities say Shane Tamura, 27, drove from his Las Vegas home to Manhattan, marched into an office skyscraper on Monday and fatally shot four people, including an off-duty police officer, with an assault-style rifle before taking his own life.
Tamura legally purchased a revolver in Nevada in June at a gun store, New York police said, even though, according to multiple news reports, he was hospitalized under an emergency "mental health crisis hold" in 2022 and again in 2024.
The details of those episodes were not known.
Authorities have said Tamura carried a note on Monday in which he claimed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disease linked to football and other contact sports that can affect behavior. The disease can only be confirmed after death.
New York City's medical examiner said in an email that Tamura's brain would be examined as part of a complete autopsy but did not say whether it would be screened for CTE.
Tamura, who shot himself in the chest on Monday, bought the rifle he used in the attack from a supervisor at the casino where he worked for $1,400, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing law enforcement sources. Nevada law requires private gun sales to go through a licensed firearms dealer and include a background check.
Whether he obtained the rifle legally or not, advocates for stricter gun laws said the case showed a need for tougher regulations nationwide, especially for people with mental health problems.
"It is horrifying ... that a man with documented mental health struggles was able to purchase a weapon, let alone a weapon of such devastating capability," New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday, urging a national ban on assault rifles. New York is one of 10 states that bans such weapons, according to the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
The National Rifle Association, the New York State Firearms Association and the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The groups oppose restrictions on guns as an infringement on individual rights.
Under Nevada law, officers can detain individuals on emergency holds in mental health facilities or hospitals for up to 72 hours for evaluation.
In a handful of states including New York – which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation – such emergency holds trigger some version of a ban on possessing guns, according to experts. But in most states, including Nevada, as well as under federal law, only a court-ordered involuntary commitment results in a prohibition on buying and owning guns.
"What this shooting in New York highlights more than anything else is that we're only as safe as the laws of the weakest state," said Nick Suplina, Everytown's senior vice president for law and policy.
Nevada has enacted a series of gun limits since an October 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people in Las Vegas. Giffords, another gun safety advocacy organization, gave Nevada a "B-" grade in its annual scorecard of gun laws, compared with an "A" for New York.
A new Nevada law that took effect this month – too late to apply to the Manhattan shooter – allows law enforcement officers to take away guns temporarily from someone who is on an emergency mental health hold. The officer can also petition a court to retain the guns if the person is deemed a danger to themselves or others.
That law is similar to Nevada's "red flag" statute, which allows law enforcement or relatives to ask a court to seize firearms from anyone considered a risk. Twenty-one states have enacted red-flag laws, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Tamura was able to obtain a concealed carry permit in 2022, according to news reports, although it was unclear whether he did so before or after his first hospitalization.
His permit would have allowed him to buy the revolver last month without a background check under state law.
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In the weeks leading up to her death, she had made troubling posts on social media, detailing a spate of hospital admissions and a quad bike accident. Mark Middleton Mark Middleton, who served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton during his first term, admitted Epstein to the White House on seven of at least 17 visits. He died by suicide in May 2022. At 59 years old, Middleton's body and car were found at the Heifer Ranch, which is owned by an anti-poverty nonprofit called Heifer International, in Perryville, Arkansas, an hour west of Little Rock. Middleton also flew on Epstein's jet, nicknamed the 'Lolita Express'. Middleton left the White House in February 1995 and was accused of setting himself up as an international deal-maker. In 1996, an investigation by the White House found that Middleton had abused his access to impress business clients. He was barred from the executive mansion without senior approval. According to the Arkansas Times, Middleton's family said he was suffering from depression. Jean-Luc Brunel Jeffrey Epstein's French modeling agent friend, Jean-Luc Brunel, was found dead in his Paris prison cell in February 2022. He had been held since December 2020 on charges of raping minors. Brunel had made several suicide attempts in prison before being found in his cell hanged with his bedsheets on February 19, 2022. French prosecutors opened their own investigation into Brunel after allegations arose in the US and France that he had raped and procured underage girls for Epstein. According to court documents, Virginia Giuffre said Brunel used her as a 'sex slave' and forced her to have sex with well-known politicians and businessmen. Brunel, who began his career as a model scout in the 1970s and later co-founded the MC2 agency in Miami, was briefly freed in late 2021 before being reincarcerated by a Paris court of appeal. His lawyers said his death aged 75 was 'not guided by guilt but a profound sense of injustice', insisting Brunel denied all charges. Thomas Bowers Thomas Bowers, a former Deutsche Bank executive, hanged himself at his Malibu home in November 2019 at the age of 55. Bowers was head of Deutsche Bank's wealth management division until 2015. Deutsche Bank's relationship with Epstein, which lasted from 2013 until 2018, was the focus of lawsuits after his death (he banked with JPMorgan from 1998 until it closed his accounts in 2013). In 2020, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $150 million to New York regulators to settle allegations that it overlooked suspicious transactions linked to Epstein. 'We acknowledge our error of onboarding Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learned from our mistakes and shortcomings,' a Deutsche Bank spokesman said at the time. The bank also reached a $75 million settlement with victims of Epstein in 2023, but did not acknowledge any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. There is no public evidence directly linking Bowers to Epstein's accounts. As part of his role dealing with high-profile clients Bowers oversaw Rosemary Vrablic, who later became Trump's private banker. He had three children with his wife Abigail, who died in 2017 of unknown causes.
