The gunman who shot four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper Monday night was a former North Valley student and football player.
Shane Devon Tamura was shown on video strutting into the midtown office building, which housed the NFL headquarters. He shot five people, killing four, including a NYPD office, before shooting himself in a stairwell.
Tamura left behind notes blaming the NFL for a traumatic brain injury, one of them saying, “Study my brain.” He did not reach the NFL offices however, having taken the wrong elevator.
The shooter was indeed a former football player, playing at Golden Valley High in Santa Clarita before transferring to Granada Hills Charter School in 2015. His coaches described him as a football standout and a quiet but hard working player.
“Total shock, total shock,” Walter Roby, Tamura’s former football coach said. “Just to see someone you’re affiliated with or someone that you know or coach, it’s tough. It’s really tough to see in that light. Could there have been more than I could have done to help him?”
Later in life Tamura was reported to suffer from mental health issues, which he attributed to his football years.
Granada Hills Charter High School released a statement Tuesday, confirming Tamura attended the school in the fall semester of 2015, which said “(Tamura) has had no connection with the school since his withdrawal a decade ago,” the school said. “We are horrified by the violence in New York. It is heartbreaking, and we extend our deepest sympathies to the victims, their families, and affected communities.”
Tamura’s father was ironically a LAPD officer. Police Officer III Terence Tamura had joined the force in 1990, and moved to Southern California with his family in the early 2010’s. He retired in good standing in 2017.
