Business leaders are vowing to beef up security for workers, including possibly so-called active shooter training, following the shocking massacre at a prime Manhattan office tower, The Post has learned.
Crazed gunman Shane Tamura casually strolled into the building at 345 Park Ave while toting a semi-automatic weapon at around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Once inside, he began firing, ultimately leaving four people dead including an off-duty NYPD officer who was working security at the building, which houses among others employees from private equity firm Blackstone and the National Football League.
Businesses had begun to increase security, mostly around CEOs, following the cold-blooded execution of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson as he was about to attend a conference in midtown Manhattan last year.
Workers in the area received shelter in place warnings on their iPhone during the melee. But Tamura’s senseless attack in the heart of the city’s business district highlights the need to protect the rank and file even more, sources said.
Kathy Wylde, the CEO of the NYC Partnership, the city’s main business group, said that the initial response of businesses will be “reminding employees about safety protocols for these situations. And visible extra security in lobbies for now.”
Another executive at a big NY-based bank said there will be a push for formal active shooter training, which involves being aware of potential gunmen, assessing the situation and then engaging in what’s known as “run, hide and fight” strategy, the latter being a last resort.
Here is the latest on the NYC mass shooting:
Reps for many Midtown firms did not want to provide exact details on their potential new security measures out of fear that they would be used by other murderous maniacs.
“We don’t comment about security for obvious reasons,” said a flack at a big Manhattan based financial firm. “Everybody beefed up security after the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder. We’ve always been robust at our building. Expect more of it.”
Tamura, a casino security guard in Las Vegas, drove cross country to carry out his murder spree.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
As news spread of shots being fired, employees at Blackstone barricaded themselves inside the main offices, which has since been dubbed the “panic room.”
“It was chaotic and some peeps didn’t even want to come out once they got the all clear,” said one financial executive with friends at the big PE firm.
When they finally emerged, they discovered that Tamura gunned down one of their own, 43-year-old Wesley LePatner, a rising star in the firm’s real estate business.
Sources say LePatner was leaving to have drinks with a friend when Tamura opened fire in the building’s lobby.
The married mother of two young boys was said to be on the verge of a major promotion as head of Blackstone’s massive Real Estate Investment Trust business, called BREIT.
“She was a good friend and a beautiful soul,” is how one Wall Street executive described LePatner. “The last thing she was thinking about was this.”
Tamura, a former high school football player, had a history of mental illness.
He killed himself with a bullet to the chest after the rampage. A note left behind said the target of his rampage was the NFL because he suffered from CTE, a brain-trauma injury that has afflicted several NFL players.
