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- Julia Hyman, a recent Cornell graduate who worked for Rudin Management, was among those killed during the July 28 mass shooting in New York
- Shane Tamura, who was apparently targeting the NFL’s offices in the same building, only found himself on Hyman’s floor after taking the wrong elevator
- Tamura took his own life, claiming in a three-page letter to be suffering from CTE
A recent college graduate from New York City has been identified as one of the four people killed in the July 28 mass shooting at a New York City office building.
Julia Hyman, an employee at Rudin Management, was working on the 33rd floor of 345 Park Avenue when Shane Devon Tamura, 27, opened fire and killed her shortly before he turned his weapon on himself, a law enforcement source confirmed to PEOPLE.
She was only 5 years out of college, having received a degree from the Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Hyman joined Rudin as an associate back in November, and had been working for the building management company — which owns 345 Park Avenue, the site of the shooting — for nine months.
Tamura allegedly meant to travel to the headquarters of the National Football League on Monday, and only found himself on the floor where Hyman was working after he got on an elevator at a bank that didn’t travel to the NFL’s offices.
“He, from our preliminary investigation, he took the wrong elevator bank up to the NFL headquarters,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said. “Instead, it took him to Rudin Management, and that is where he carried out additional shootings and took the lives of additional employees.”
In a letter he left behind, the gunman allegedly wrote about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and spoke disparagingly about the NFL according to Adams, who said on Tuesday that authorities “have reason to believe that he was focused on the NFL.”
The NFL reported on Tuesday that an employee had been critically injured in the attack.
Tamura drove across the country from Las Vegas to New York City, where he double parked outside of the office building and then entered while wielding an assault rifle.
Upon entering the skyscraper, Tamura shot New York City police officer Didarul Islam, 36, a father of two from Bangladesh with a third child on the way, had been working off-duty as a security guard at the building on Monday.
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Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, confirmed in a statement that one of their employees, Wesley LePatner, also died in the shooting.
“Our prayers are with her husband, children and family,” the company said of the mother of two.
The fourth individual killed was security guard Aland Etienne, his union confirmed on Tuesday.
“Aland Etienne is a New York hero. We will remember him as such,” 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich said in a statement.
There were also multiple people who suffered injuries while fleeing from the gunman, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference on Monday.
Tisch also said that the shooter had “a documented mental health history,” but still had a gun permit in the state of Nevada.
Officers searched the black BMW he drove to scene on Monday and discovered a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition and multiple magazines, according to Tisch.
Tamura had been a high school football star in Southern California and reportedly carried out this attack believing he suffered from CTE and asked that he be examined for the degenerative brain disease, which is caused by repeated blows to the head and has become widely associated with playing football.
He took his life by shooting himself in the chest.
