Banker husband of executive killed in NYC shooting seen

Daily Mail​

7 days ago

A private equity chief whose powerful businesswoman wife was among four murdered in a New York City mass shooting looked distraught hours after the killings. Evan LePatner, 44, appeared exhausted and distressed less than a day after his wife Wesley LePatner, 43, was killed at her office in 345 Park Avenue, a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.
Wesley was a senior managing director at the prestigious finance giant. She and her husband lived in a $7 million apartment on New York's Upper East Side with their two young children. The couple met during their first day studying at Yale in 1999. Daily Mail photographed LePatner as he arrived back at his home Tuesday, but he did not comment about the terrible tragedy that has rocked his family.
Wesley was gunned down by Shane Tamura, 27, who had driven from his home in Las Vegas to New York City to carry out a twisted plot against the National Football League. Tamura claimed playing football while at high school in California had left him with the brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy, although he had never played for the NFL.
The NFL's NYC offices are in the same building as Blackstone, where Wesley worked, with Tamura storming the building with an AR-15-type rifle around 6:30pm Monday. Wesley was one of three murdered in the lobby while trying to hide from the gunfire behind a pillar. Also killed in the building's lobby was New York Police Department Officer Didarul Islam, 36. Islam leaves behind a wife who is eight months pregnant and the couple's two young sons. Security guard Aland Etienne, 46, was the third person who died in the lobby.
Gunman Tamura summoned an elevator in a bid to get up to the NFL offices to continue his massacre, but took the wrong car. He ended up getting out on the 33rd floor, home to property management company Rudin. There, Tamura murdered 27-year-old Rudin employee Julia Hyman, before taking his own life. The bloodbath is the worst shooting to hit New York City in 25 years and has sparked revulsion among city leaders and the relatives of those killed.
LePatner had a glittering resume that included a 10-year stint at investment bank Goldman Sachs prior to joining Blackstone. She was hailed by friends as being a compassionate and kind colleague in the often cut-throat world of finance. A statement issued by LePatner's family said: 'She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable. To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague. At this unbearably painful time, we are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled, yet we will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created.'
LePatner also received a glowing tribute from her Blackstone colleagues. 'Words cannot express the devastation we feel,' their statement said. 'Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed. She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond. She embodied the best of Blackstone. Our prayers are with her husband, children and family.'
Shane Tamura left his home in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 26, and drove across the country in his black BMW, arriving in New York City around two hours before the shooting. He had two prior mental health holds in his home city and was once charged with trespassing at a casino resort, although those charges were later dropped. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference Monday that Tamura had been given a part for his rifle by an 'associate' who has not yet been named. That associate is now set to be quizzed by New York City Police Department investigators who are en route to Las Vegas.