An NFL employee was “seriously injured” in the deadly shooting at the league’s New York City offices on Monday, commissioner Roger Goodell said in a staff memo.
The staffer is in the hospital and in stable condition, Goodell added, saying that the league is supporting his family.
Otherwise, Goodell said in the note sent Monday night that the NFL’s employees are “otherwise safe and accounted for, and the building has nearly been cleared.”
Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed in the shooting at the league’s Midtown Manhattan offices at 345 Park Avenue, and the gunman killed himself.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the gunman targeted the NFL’s headquarters but took the wrong elevator. He shot several people in the building’s lobby before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Managment, and shot and killed one person on the floor before shooting himself, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, according to the Associated Press.
Police said the shooter, Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, had a history of mental illness and a rambling note found on his body suggested he was angry with the NFL over his belief that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head trauma in contact sports like football, after playing high school football in California nearly two decades ago. Tamura said his brain should be studied after he died, according to the AP.
In addition to the NFL, the building houses the investment firm Blackstone and one of its employees was among those killed, according to the AP, and the financial services firm KPMG.
In the memo, Goodell said the NFL was “deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively and to Officer Islam [the off-duty cop who was killed], who gave his life to protect others.”
Goodell said there would be increased security at 345 Park Ave. “in the days and weeks to come” and that New York-based employees should work remotely Tuesday and it was understandable if people wanted to take the day off.
“Every one of you is a valued member of the NFL family,” Goodell said. “We will get through this together.”