NYC gunman Shane Tamura's former football coach, teammate recall killer as ‘gifted' athlete who became ‘completely different' person

New York Post

3 days ago

A former high-school football teammate of Shane Tamura said the Park Avenue killer had become a 'completely different' person since his star-athlete glory days.
'Nine years ago, he was a completely different Shane,' the 28-year-old ex-colleague told The Post on Tuesday — the day after Tamura shot up a Manhattan skyscraper in a failed attempt to target NFL headquarters, which he blamed for alleged brain injuries despite never playing in the league.
'Compared to what's on the news, I don't think any one of us, none of my teammates, sensed anything like this from Shane,' said the man, who asked not to be identified and noted he wasn't close with Tamura and hadn't spoken to him since high school.
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'He was very devoted to football, he was a very good player, but off the field he was very like, nice, positive. He never really had conflict with anyone,' the man said.
3 Walter Roby, 60, who coached Tamura during his senior year at Granada Hills Charter High School, told The Post Tamura was a 'gifted' athlete and said he was 'heartbroken' to learn the news he perpetrated a mass shooting.
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Tamura was a standout running back at Granada Hills Charter and Golden Valley high schools in Los Angeles County, garnering numerous accolades including being named player of the game five times during his junior year in 2015.
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'He was very quiet. He led by his actions more than his word. He was athletically gifted. One of the best running backs that I coached,' said Walter Roby, 60, who coached Tamura during his senior year at Granada Hills, to The Post.
'He was coachable, meaning when you can ask him to do something he would do it. He was quiet, humble. He knew his athletic ability but he wasn't boastful about that.'
Roby said he was 'heartbroken' at the news his former player had perpetrated the heinous mass shooting.
'It's just shocking. It took me a while to come to grips with it. that was tough,' the coach said.
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Tamura took his own life after his shooting spree, in which he killed three office workers and an NYPD officer as he stormed 345 Park Ave. in Midtown with an AR-style rifle Monday evening, apparently targeting the NFL, Mayor Eric Adams said.
Police found a rambling three-page note stashed in Tamura's wallet in which he blamed football for his alleged struggle with CTE — the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy — and begged for his brain to be studied after his death.
The note also included an apology to someone named Rick, who NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed was Tamura's supervisor at the Horseshoe Las Vegas Casino. Rick was the owner of the crucial part of the gun that Tamura used.
Detectives have located Rick and are currently questioning him, as well as the seller of the weapon's lower receiver, which an NYPD spokesman described as 'what makes the rifle fire.'
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Investigators are still working to determine Tamura's exact motive, but sources said he is believed to have suffered at least two mental health incidents in 2022 and 2024.
He received his gun permit in 2022, and a short time later notified police he was having suicidal ideations — which are not grounds for having a permit revoked, a source told The Post.
3 (Clockwise from top left) Blackrock exec Wesley LePatner, security guard Aland Etienne, NYPD cop Didarul Islam and Rudin employee Julia Hyman were killed in the July 28 massacre.
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In 2024, Tamura had a second mental health contact.
Sources told The Post police found the prescription medication Sumatriptan, used for relieving migraine symptoms, in Tamura's BMW, which he had double-parked outside 345 Park Ave. before waltzing into the building with his assault rifle.
The gunman's former high school teammate told The Post he never saw any indication Tamura was struggling with mental illness.
He conceded, however, that people sometimes change over time.
'You might know someone 9, 10, 12 years ago in general life and time can change a lot of things. I don't know what happened. It could have been some sort of mental illness, some kind of stress, something could have happened, I really have no idea.'
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3 Tamura played high-school football and blamed the NFL for his alleged degenerative brain condition, despite never playing in the league.
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As for whether Tamura ever got banged up enough on the field to wind up with a CTE diagnosis — as has afflicted a number of high-profile NFL players — Roby said he couldn't recall anything but an ankle injury that sidelined him for a single game.
Asked whether he was good enough to have a chance to get drafted into the NFL one day, Roby said it was tough to say.
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'Did he have the ability to play at the college level? Definitely had that athletic ability. As far as the NFL, I don't know. Being in the NFL, you're talking about the 1% of the 1%. I don't know if he had that type of skill set.'
Additional reporting by Tina Moore