NFL New York attack

The attack on July 28^th by 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura in midtown Manhattan is the latest episode of ideological violence that has plagued the country recently. The attacker arrived in a black BMW, entered the lobby carrying an M4/AR-15 style rifle while wearing a bulletproof vest, ready for an extended encounter as he sought maximum carnage. 

Arriving at the lobby of 345 Park Avenue at 6:28 PM, he killed off-duty NYPD officer Didarul Islam, a security guard, and two civilians. One additional person, an NFL employee, was critically injured but survived. Tamura then took the elevator to the 33rd floor where he fatally shot another individual, and subsequently shot himself in the chest, ending the attack. The NYPD declared the scene secure and confirmed the shooter was neutralized by 7:52 PM. 

The motive

In a multi-page suicide note, Tamura explicitly blamed the NFL for his neurological issues, citing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from his high school football career. He referenced former player Terry Long as a cautionary example:

“Terry Long football gave me CTE … You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you.”

He requested his brain be examined and expressed remorse to someone named “Rick”. 

• Resentment directed at the NFL: The note framed the NFL as the entity directly responsible for his suffering, an organization he saw as toxic and unsympathetic toward athletes with brain injuries.
• Still under investigation: Authorities are treating this as a premeditated act, likely targeting the NFL symbolically due to his perceived betrayal. There’s no confirmed direct link between Tamura and the NFL (no documented employment or formal affiliation), and no such connection has been established in official records so far.

Ideological Violence

A variety of commentators and online users have drawn parallels between Tamura and Luigi Mangione, who murdered the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, on December 4^th, 2024. There are indeed important similarities.

• Anti-system grievances: Both individuals reportedly expressed anger toward institutions, football in one case, health insurance in the other.
• Personal manifestos: Like Mangione’s writings calling executives “parasites,” Tamura left notes externalizing blame tied to trauma.

Mangione became a folk hero online in subcultures frustrated with corporate power, with memes (#FreeLuigi) and fan tributes proliferating. The rhetoric surrounding Mangione revealed a growing tolerance, if not outright support, for vigilante violence against perceived corporate evils. A poll showed a significant portion of younger voters were ambivalent or supportive of his act. 

While there’s no widespread direct comparison published between Tamura and Mangione, similar themes of anti-institutional anger, mental health narration, and online valorization of violence are being noted in discussions around Tamura, echoing the earlier Mangione discourse.

Media critiques argue that the sympathetic coverage afforded to white male perpetrators, like Mangione, reflects racial and class biases, framing them as troubled individuals rather than criminals. It will be worth following to see if that plays out in this latest attack. 

It seems unlikely Tamura will be treated with similar sympathies at least in part because the NFL has a very different profile than the health care industry. The NFL has dealt with harsh criticism and public relations problems due to the violent nature of the sport and its repercussions on the athletes who play it. But the NFL is still enormously popular in American society, while the healthcare industry is very much the opposite. So we expect the response to the attack to reflect this. 

Insight from Daniel Zaffran, EVP, Threat Intelligence & Security Operations

Yesterday’s attack is yet another tick upwards in the frightening trajectory of ideologically motivated attacks targeting the business community. It is incumbent upon corporate leaders and security directors to have their physical security, crisis management, and business continuity plans in place and understood broadly within their organizations. These leaders also must have their finger on the pulse of negative rhetoric and grievances telegraphed within the soup of online chatter. It must be a mix of intelligence and access control, both on an individual company level and through collaboration within the business community, as well as law enforcement.

If you would like to speak to Daniel and learn more about how Interfor International keeps its clients safe, please reach out at info@interfor.international