The gunman who killed four people in New York this summer while trying to storm NFL headquarters did in fact suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE.
Videos by FanBuzz
Getty
The city medical examiner's office revealed Friday that Shane Tamura, 27, showed "unambiguous diagnostic evidence" of CTE. Officials described it as a low-stage version of the disease, but definitive nonetheless.
Tamura, a former high school football player with a history of mental illness, left a rambling suicide note blaming the NFL for his struggles. He pleaded for doctors to examine his brain after his death.
"Please study brain for CTE," the note read. "I'm sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us."
On July 28, Tamura entered 345 Park Avenue, the site of the NFL's headquarters, armed with an AR-15-style weapon. He never reached the league's offices, but he killed four people during the rampage — including 36-year-old NYPD officer Didarul Islam —before turning the gun on himself.
The medical examiner's spokeswoman emphasized caution about the findings.
"We're unable — as I don't think science would be able to at all at this point — to say what role CTE played in that particular incident," she said. "We're not saying that CTE is the cause of what happened at the Park Avenue shooting."
CTE, a brain condition linked to repeated head trauma, has become one of the most pressing issues in football. Countless former players have been diagnosed posthumously, many of them tied to disturbing stories of mood swings, violence, and depression.
For Tamura, the diagnosis answered one haunting question. It does not answer the bigger one, and that's whether CTE actually contributed to the tragedy on Park Avenue.
