Shane Tamura triggered prior mental health alerts in Nevada but red flag gun laws are underutilised.
Law enforcement officials said Shane Tamura, the Las Vegas man suspected of killing four people on July 28 in a Manhattan office building, had a documented mental health history, raising questions about why he had access to guns.
Police said Tamura, 27, fired an M4 rifle in the building that houses the NFL headquarters, killing four people, including a police officer working a corporate security detail, and then himself. News reports said Tamura, a former high school football player, had a note that said he had CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is associated with head injury.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on July 28 that police had heard about Tamura’s mental health history from Las Vegas officials. She provided no further details.
News reports, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, said Tamura had two mental health crisis “holds”, which allow someone to be held involuntarily for evaluation and treatment for up to 72 hours, in Nevada in 2022 and 2024.
