NYC shooter’s brain will be tested for CTE, officials say

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The brain of the gunman in Monday’s deadly shootings at the Manhattan building that houses the NFL’s offices will be evaluated for the degenerative disorder from which he claimed to be suffering, according to the city’s medical examiner’s office.

A spokesperson for New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said testing and evaluation for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) will take place over multiple weeks in an assessment of possible diseases of the brain, spinal cord and nerves of the shooter, identified by authorities as 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas.

“[T]he medical examiner is performing a neuropathology assessment as part of the complete autopsy,” a member of the office’s public affairs and communications staff wrote in an email Thursday to The Washington Post.

Asked to clarify whether screening for CTE, which typically involves a special diagnostic staining process, is certain to be part of the assessment, the office said by email: “Yes, our office has neuropathology expertise in house. The nature of the testing is expected to take multiple weeks.”

Four people, including a New York City police officer, were killed when the gunman opened fire Monday inside the high-rise office building in Midtown Manhattan. The gunman then fatally shot himself in the chest, authorities said. An NFL employee was wounded in the shooting at 345 Park Avenue.

Investigators found a three-page handwritten note in Tamura’s wallet that referenced CTE, according to a person familiar with the law enforcement investigation. “Study my brain please,” the note read. According to a copy of the note obtained by the New York Post, the gunman also apparently mentioned by name Boston University, a leader in CTE research, and prominent researchers, including Ann McKee and Bennet Omalu.

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) did not specify Tuesday whether Tamura’s brain will be tested for CTE, saying during an interview with CNN: “The medical examiner here in the city, he will make that determination on the next steps in collaboration with the district attorney in Manhattan County.”

CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. The brains of many high-profile athletes have been donated to the UNITE Brain Bank and studied at Boston University’s CTE Center. Its CTE diagnoses include Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL tight end who was serving a life sentence for murder when he died by suicide in 2017 and was diagnosed with stage 3 CTE, and Phillip Adams, a 32-year-old former NFL player who killed six people and himself in 2021 and was found to have stage 2 CTE.

Chris Nowinski, the CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with the BU center and helps operate the brain bank, said he didn’t anticipate Tamura’s brain making its way to BU’s researchers unless requested by New York’s medical examiner’s office. Unlike medical examiners in many other cities, the New York City office has doctors qualified to make a CTE diagnosis, he said.

“They have neuropathologists on their team who understand CTE,” Nowinski said in a phone interview. “They can do the study for CTE and all other known brain abnormalities themselves. Whether they ask anyone to review their findings, I don’t know. But I have full confidence in them.”

Nowinski said he was confident that CTE would be among the pathologies looked for by the New York officials. In a more routine case, CTE might not be on the checklist. The diagnostic process involves first fixing a brain sample in a formalin solution to harden. Researchers then stain the sample to highlight deposits of tau protein, an indicator of CTE.

“I’m sure they’ll probably do the same kind of work-up we do,” Nowinski said. “We don’t just look for CTE. We look for all brain abnormalities – could see genetic disorders, tumours, all sorts of things.”

He cautioned that even if Tamura is determined to have CTE, that wouldn’t necessarily explain his actions in the Manhattan high-rise and certainly wouldn’t rule out other contributing factors such as mental illness, genetic disorders or drug use.

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Experts in the field don’t expect quick answers. The process for studying the brain and diagnosing CTE can take two or more weeks and wouldn’t necessarily be made public until the medical examiner’s office and investigators choose to release the findings. In the case of Adams, a CTE diagnosis wasn’t made public for eight months.

Most high-profile CTE cases have been linked to NFL players, and researchers don’t know how prevalent CTE might be in athletes who only played through high school. One 2023 study from Boston University focused on athletes who died before the age of 30. It included the brains of 45 players who didn’t play football beyond high school; 14 of them – 31 percent – were found to have CTE. (Researchers note the brains were donated by families who sought a neuropathologic examination and might have suspected CTE.)

Tamura played football in high school but not college or the NFL. The note found in his wallet cited Terry Long, a former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman who took his own life in 2005. The Allegheny County coroner’s office first ruled Long died of meningitis, but a revised death certificate filed one month later listed the manner of Long’s death as suicide from drinking antifreeze. The medical examiner’s office called Long’s football-related brain injuries a contributing factor to his death but said he did not die as a direct result of them, the Associated Press reported in January 2006.

The note found in Tamura’s wallet said the “league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits” and “failed us.”

Adams said in broadcast interviews Tuesday that the shooter was targeting the NFL.

“From our preliminary investigation, he took the wrong elevator bank up to the NFL headquarters,” Adams told CBS. “Instead, it took him to Rudin Management. And that is where he carried out additional shootings and took the lives of additional employees.”

The NFL has closed its offices through at least the end of next week. Commissioner Roger Goodell instructed employees to work remotely until then. Goodell participated in a virtual town hall for NFL employees Wednesday and spoke to NBC from the New York area during its broadcast of Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

“It’s a difficult thing, particularly when you’re dealing with a senseless act like this,” Goodell said. “There are no excuses for those senseless acts. They’re hard for all of us to understand. When it inflicts pain on people you know and people you care about and people that we deal with on a daily basis, that’s particularly hard.”

Goodell attended police officer Didarul Islam’s funeral Thursday.

“It hits home,” Goodell said. “The loss – the unnecessary and unexplainable loss. … It was a difficult, emotional afternoon but also a tremendous, heartwarming service for him.”

Goodell said he spent about an hour at a hospital Wednesday with the NFL employee, Craig Clementi, who was injured in the shooting. Goodell did not refer to Clementi by name but called him an “amazing young man.” He called his condition “stable and improving” and added: “We’re optimistic about his recovery.”

The NFL held a moment of silence before the kickoff of Thursday night’s preseason-opening game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions.

“This is an attack on humanity,” Goodell said. “This is an attack on our communities. This is an attack on New York. This is an attack on our way of life.”