The man who stormed a New York City skyscraper and shot dead four people before he took his own life early on Monday had constructed the rifle he used himself, from parts, the police have said.
The authorities are questioning an associate of the suspect about supplying components of the AR-15-style assault rifle used in the attack.
The New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said that the suspect in the attack in Manhattan, Shane Tamura, 27, had “assembled” the weapon himself that he used in the shooting.
The suspect also had a permit to carry a concealed gun and had used the permit to purchase another firearm, a revolver, last month, the police said.
Investigating the sources of his weapons “is part of a larger effort to trace Mr Tamura’s steps from Las Vegas to New York City”, Tisch said.
Tamura travelled from his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Manhattan by car. A search of his vehicle uncovered a loaded revolver, ammunition and prescription medicines.
Public records show that he had acquired a security guard’s license, and reports suggest he had been working security at a Las Vegas casino, in the surveillance department.
Tamura did not show up to work his usual shift on Sunday at the Horseshoe Las Vegas. Instead, authorities say, he got in his car and drove across the country to carry out a mass shooting inside the skyscraper that houses the National Football League (NFL) headquarters. A fifth person, an NFL employee, was wounded in Monday’s attack.
As investigators work to uncover a motive, questions are being raised about how a man with a documented history of mental health problems – and a recent arrest for erratic behavior at another casino – ended up working in one of the most security-sensitive jobs in Las Vegas.
Caesars Entertainment, which owns the Horseshoe, confirmed Tamura’s employment but has yet to disclose the nature of his role or whether he was authorized to carry a weapon. A spokesperson didn’t respond to emails asking whether Tamura’s job required him to hold a valid work card from the state private investigators licensing board, which is needed to work as a private security officer in Nevada.
State licensing records show Tamura previously held a state-issued license as a private security officer, though it had expired in December.
Authorities have not provided more specific information about Tamura’s psychiatric history but are investigating claims he included in a handwritten note he left behind, in which he said he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.
Officials said he had intended to target the offices of the NFL, which he accused of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports, but he took the wrong elevator.
Tamura’s family members did not respond to messages seeking comment. No one answered a knock at the door of his family’s Las Vegas home on Monday.
Tamura did not play professional football but was a standout running back during his high school years in southern California, where he was born, according to local news accounts at the time, including one that described his abilities as “lightning in a bottle”.
One of his former coaches, Walter Roby, said he did not remember Tamura sustaining any head injuries in his playing days. He recalled an ankle injury, “but that was the extent of it”.
“He was a quiet dude, soft-spoken, humble and led by his work ethic more than anything else,” Roby told the Associated Press. “His actions on the field were dynamic.”
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