Newly released police reports and body camera footage are shedding light on the troubled path that led a shooter on a cross-country drive from his home in Las Vegas to the skyscraper in Manhattan where he killed four people last week before turning the gun on himself.
Records from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reveal a history of lingering symptoms from a concussion and run-ins with police in his hometown, including mental health-related calls made by his mother and two stints in a mental health facility.
Shane Devon Tamura, 27, stormed into 345 Park Avenue on July 28 armed with an AR-15 style rifle, and carried out the city’s deadliest mass shooting in 25 years.
While the new details highlighted questions about whether Tamura’s mental health history could have prevented him from owning a gun, it’s not clear whether his history would have triggered Nevada’s red flag law.
Tamura had a license to carry a concealed weapon in Nevada that may have exempted him from additional background checks in subsequent years, and experts say that mental health records can be difficult for law enforcement officials to obtain.
Here’s what we know from the released body camera footage, 911 calls and police documents:
This image from surveillance video shows Shane Tamura outside a Manhattan office building on July 28 in New York. – AP
Mother’s desperate calls to police show years of mental health struggles
In September 2022, Tamura’s mother, overwhelmed with fear, called 911 from her car outside a Las Vegas motel. Inside, her then-24-year-old son was threatening to take his own life.
She wasn’t sure if he was armed but knew he owned a handgun and carried a backpack with a holster, she told the dispatcher.
“I was just inside the apartment with him, and he just started crying and, like, slamming things,” she said. Tamura had told her he “just can’t take it anymore.”
Too scared to leave but equally afraid to stay because Tamura told her she was making things worse, the mother hid in her car, hoping he wouldn’t see her.
Tamura suffered from depression, insomnia, migraines and lingering symptoms from a concussion from a sports injury, his mother said.
Las Vegas police responded, filing an emergency petition to commit Tamura to a mental health facility.
Following the shooting in New York, investigators found a suicide note on Tamura in which he claimed he suffered from CTE, a source said. The brain disease is linked to head trauma, like concussions.
Tamura, a celebrated high school football star, expressed grievances with the NFL in his note and asked for his brain to be studied for signs of CTE, the source said.
Two years after the first mental health commitment, in August 2024, police were called to his apartment again after a similar plea from his mother. She reported Tamura had called her crying and expressing suicidal thoughts, according to police logs.
“He was just crying and said, ‘I’m not going to be able to go any further,’” his mother told a dispatcher.
He struggled with several behavioral issues, including bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression, the mother said.
When an officer arrived at the apartment, medical responders who were already there said Tamura had been “calm and cooperative with us.”
At one point, Tamura pointed to a backpack he said contained a gun and the officer told him, “Don’t touch it – don’t go near it,” the bodycam video shows.
Tamura was again committed to a mental health facility for treatment.
Without further details on the psychiatric holds, it’s unclear whether they would have shown up in background checks and prevented Tamura from purchasing weapons, CNN previously reported.
“If you were on a 48-hour hold, if you were released at the end of that, it would not affect your ability to possess firearms under federal law,” Thomas Chittum, former associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said.
The weapon used in the Manhattan shooting was legally purchased last year by the gunman’s supervisor at the Vegas casino where he worked, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The supervisor then assembled it and sold it to Tamura for $1,400, the officials said, citing an interview with the supervisor who was cooperating with authorities.
It’s not clear whether a background check was involved, officials say.
The residence of Shane Tamura, identified as the gunman in the fatal shooting at a Manhattan office building in New York City. – Ty ONeil/AP
Charged with trespassing at a casino
In September 2023, Tamura was charged with criminal trespass after being kicked out of a Las Vegas casino for refusing to show identification when trying to exchange his chips for cash.
Security officials at the Red Rock Casino described Tamura as an “irate guest,” who refused to show his ID as required to cash out and became agitated.
In a call to 911, casino security described Tamura as “making a spectacle of himself” and said he appeared to be “on something.”
Minutes after casino security called police, Tamura also called 911, accusing the casino of theft.
“They stole like $6,000 from me,” he told the operator. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
Police responded and removed Tamura from the casino in handcuffs, body camera video shows.
He was charged with trespassing, but a court database suggests a district attorney declined to pursue the case.
An image captured by a license plate reader placed by the Scott County Sheriff’s Office shows the shooter’s BMW on Interstate 80 near Wolcott, Indiana. – Obtained by CNN
Issued citation for driving without a license
In May 2024, Tamura was pulled over for driving a vehicle with no license plates, body camera video shows.
Tamura provided his license and registration, but officers discovered that his license had been indefinitely suspended in 2023 due to numerous traffic violations. His insurance was valid, but his car’s registration had expired the month prior.
Tamura was issued a citation for operating an unregistered vehicle and driving without a valid drivers license.
Image shows the suspected New York shooting Shane Devon Tamura’s firearms permit. – Obtained by CNN
Evidence collected after the New York shooting
The day after the shooting in New York, police executed a search warrant at Tamura’s Las Vegas apartment.
Investigators removed several items, including a bipod for a rifle, an empty Colt gun case, miscellaneous 9mm ammunition and a single rifle cartridge.
Officers also found a notebook containing what appeared to be a goodbye note, multiple prescription bottles — some empty, others with pills — with miscellaneous paperwork, and a vehicle title.
CNN’s Emma Tucker, Josh Campbell, Casey Tolan, Allison Gordon, Curt Devine and Jeff Winter contributed to this report.
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