Shane Devon Tamura, 27, identified by the NYPD as the Midtown Manhattan office building shooter. Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The Midtown Manhattan office shooter fired 47 rounds from his M4-style rifle during the rampage, a number that indicates the suspect, Shane Tamura, reloaded his rifle at least once, the NYPD said.
There were 23 shell casings and 13 bullet fragments recovered from the lobby of 345 Park Avenue, police said.
Detectives also located 24 spent shell casings and 15 bullet fragments on the 33rd floor of the office building, police said.
An additional 800 rounds and a .357 caliber handgun were recovered in Tamura’s BMW, which was double-parked outside the building, the NYPD said.
Four people, including off-duty New York City police officer Didarul Islam; Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner and security guard Aland Etienne, were killed in Monday’s mass shooting. The fourth victim, Julia Hyman, was killed on the 33rd floor. Office cleaner Sebije Nelovic also said she was shot at on the floor.
Police said Hyman was the last person Kamura shot and killed before taking his own life.
Investigators say they are continuing to look for a motive, but New York City Mayor Eric Adams said it appears Tamura, a former high school football player, was attempting to target the headquarters of the NFL, located in the 345 Park Avenue building but took the wrong elevator and ended up in the 33rd-floor office of Rudin Management.
Tamura, 27, worked as a surveillance department employee at the Horseshoe hotel and casino in Las Vegas, a spokesperson for the Horseshoe said on Tuesday.
He purchased the rifle used in the shooting for $1,400 from his supervisor at the casino, Rick Ackley, police sources told ABC News.
The supervisor complied with the law in the sale, his attorney said in a statement.
“Rick Ackley administered the transfer of the firearm used in the tragedy in New York lawfully complying with Nevada and federal gun laws,” Ackley’s attorney, Chris Rasmussen, said in a statement.
(BRYAN, Texas) — The Bureau of Prisons has moved former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas, officials confirmed Friday.
“We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” a BOP official said.
The reason for the move was not made clear. FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.
The move follows Maxwell’s two-day meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, where her attorney said the two discussed “about 100 names” associated with Epstein, after the Trump administration promised to release additional information about the deceased sex offender.
The Justice Department has disclosed nothing about the information Maxwell provided in that nine-hour interview.
Her attorney had no comment about the move from one federal prison to another.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein, the former financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
(WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ark.) — A teacher arrested in the murder of a married couple found stabbed to death on a trail in an Arkansas park was held without bond after a brief court appearance on Friday.
McGann is charged with two counts of capital murder in the killings of 43-year-old Clinton David Brink and his wife, 41-year-old Cristen Amanda Brink, Arkansas State Police said.
The Brinks were “fatally attacked” while out hiking with their two daughters at Devil’s Den State Park on July 26, police said.
Following a dayslong manhunt for the suspect, McGann was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a barbershop in Springdale, about 30 miles north of the park, police said. Investigators were able to track him down based on a description of the suspect’s vehicle, police said.
The state will not be waiving the death penalty in the case, according to Brandon Carter, the prosecuting attorney for Washington County.
During an interview with police following his arrest, McGann admitted to killing the couple, Arkansas State Police Director Col. Mike Hagar said during a press briefing on Thursday.
DNA from blood recovered from the crime scene also matched McGann’s DNA, Hagar said. The suspect had sustained cuts on his hands during a struggle with the victims, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
McGann had recently moved to the area from Oklahoma and had been hired to work at a local school though he had not yet started, officials said. He had previously worked in school districts in Oklahoma and Texas.
The Brinks had recently moved to Prairie Grove from North Dakota, police said.
Their children, ages 7 and 9, were not harmed in the incident thanks to the actions of their mother, police said.
“We believe that the mother took them to safety, and then returned to help her husband,” Maj. Stacie Rhoads with the Arkansas State Police said during Thursday’s press briefing.
The couple has a third daughter who wasn’t at the trail that day, Hagar said.
Their children are safe and in the custody of relatives, according to police.
(KERR COUNTY, Texas) — For the first time since catastrophic flooding killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, Texas, the county emergency management director conceded that he was sick and asleep as the water rose to historic levels on the Guadalupe River.
William “Dub” Thomas, the Kerr County Emergency Management Director since 2015, detailed his whereabouts during the crisis to a panel of 18 state lawmakers that hosted the hearing on Thursday in Kerrville, Texas.
Thomas said that after working a full day on July 2, he went home sick. He said at the time, no concerns had been raised about an elevated weather condition, “beyond what is typical for the region during the summer.”
Thomas said he stayed home sick on July 3 and did not participate in two meetings dealing with the Texas emergency management coordination center.
Thomas said his supervisors, including the Kerr County sheriff, were aware he was out sick.
He said he briefly woke up about 2 p.m. on July 3, but there was no rainfall at the time and no indication of the pending change in the river. He said he went back to sleep.
“I was awakened around 5:30 a.m., on July the Fourth by my wife following a call from the city of Kerrville EMC (Emergency Management Coordinator) Jeremy Hughes requesting that I mobilize,” Thomas said.
He said the call was the first time he realized that an emergency was unfolding.
“By approximately 6 a.m., I was coordinating our county’s response in close contact with the sheriff, the emergency operation center and Mr. Hughes, working together under rapidly changing and difficult conditions,” said Thomas.
But other Kerr County officials said by that time, summer camps along the overflowing Guadalupe River were already underwater.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Photo by NYPD News X Account / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Politicians, relatives and members of the New York City Police Department are gathered at the funeral for the “hero” officer who was one of four people killed in the Midtown Manhattan mass shooting.
Islam, a Bangladeshi immigrant who joined the NYPD four years ago, is survived by his wife, who is eight months pregnant, and two young sons. Islam was assigned to a precinct in the Bronx and previously worked as a school safety officer.
“The pain is searing,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at Thursday’s funeral at Parkchester Jame Masjid, a mosque in the Bronx.
“There’s a family that expected to see their beloved, son, husband, father for many more dinners, birthdays and life celebrations,” she said. “But because of a madman, who traveled a thousand miles with such evil in his heart, to come and destroy all that is good about New York and New York City, with intent to cause unspeakable pain in a savage way — we are here.”
“The Quran says, ‘Whoever saves a life, is it as if they saved all of humanity,'” she said. “This officer saved lives. He was out front. Others may be alive today because he was the barrier.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who met with Islam’s family on Wednesday, said at the funeral, “I’m angry that a dad has lost his son, that a mother has lost her child. I’m angry that two boys are not going to grow up and be with their father.”
But he added, “I’m filled with hope and optimism today because of the life of officer Islam. And I commend the mother and father of our officer — they instilled something special in him.”
“Our hearts lift him up in prayer,” he said. “Our city is with you. As one parent to another, I will continue to pray for you and your family.”
“He was doing the job that we asked him to do,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said earlier this week. “He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice, shot in cold blood, wearing a uniform that stood for the promise that he made to this city. He died as he lived — a hero.”
The other three victims killed on Monday were: Aland Etienne, a security guard for the building; Wesley LePatner, a Blackstone executive who was a wife and mom; and Julia Hyman, a young employee at Rudin Management.
Schumer said Tuesday in a message to the families, “You are not alone. All of New York grieves with you. … The city will carry their memories forward.”
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Twenty-five people aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam were hospitalized after the flight encountered “significant” turbulence and was diverted to Minneapolis-St. Paul, the airline said.
Delta Air Lines Flight 56 landed safely at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shortly before 8 p.m. local time Wednesday, the airline said. The flight was operating on an Airbus A33-900 with 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Fire Department and paramedics responded to the gate to provide initial medical attention, the Metropolitan Airports Commission said.
The airline said 25 of those on board were taken to the hospital “for evaluation and care.” All have since been released, the airline said Thursday.
Leeann Nash, who was on the flight with her husband, told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP that dinner service had just started on the flight when the turbulence came out of nowhere.
“There was actually no warning. It was a very abrupt, hard hit,” Nash said. “If you didn’t have your seat belt on — everyone that didn’t — they hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground, and the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground, and people were injured, and it happened several times, so it was really scary.”
Nash said there were “glass bottles flying around.”
“And you know, those carts are very heavy, so we were fortunate that we had seat belts on at the time, but we still saw cellphones flying around quite a bit,” Nash added. “But I will hand it to the flight attendants, they were incredibly calm, very well trained and very responsive.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating.
(WASHINGTON) — A panel of appeals court judges on Thursday voiced deep skepticism with the Trump administration’s attempt to justify sweeping tariffs based on a national emergency.
As the clock ticks down to President Donald Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline for the resumption of reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is hearing arguments Thursday over whether Trump’s sweeping tariffs are lawful.
A group of small businesses and a coalition of states are asking the appeals court to invalidate the bulk of Trump’s tariffs, arguing that Trump overstepped his power when he used a decades-old economic emergency statute to enact a flurry of tariffs in April.
“The President’s chaotic assertion of that purported authority, which changed by the day and wreaked havoc on capital markets and the economy, illustrates both the breadth of powers that the President claims and the danger of unlimited authority in this domain,” the coalition of states argued in their brief to the court.
At the start of Thursday’s hearing, judges on the appeals court panel questioned why Trump is relying on a law that has never been used to justify tariffs, saying that the law itself never mentions the word “tariffs” and voicing concern that the president justifying the unilateral action based on an emergency could amount to “the death knell of the Constitution.”
The hearing comes at a critical time for Trump, as he rushes to complete trade deals ahead of a self-imposed Friday deadline for dozens of reciprocal tariffs to restart. Lawyers for the Trump administration have argued that a court invalidating the tariffs would create a “foreign policy disaster scenario” as trade negotiations remain ongoing.
“To all of my great lawyers who have fought so hard to save our Country, good luck in America’s big case today,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Thursday morning. “If our Country was not able to protect itself by using TARIFFS AGAINST TARIFFS, WE WOULD BE ‘DEAD,’ WITH NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL OR SUCCESS.”
The legal authority for Trump’s tariffs was thrown into uncertainty in May when the New York-based Court of International Trade ruled that the president did not have the power to unilaterally impose his global “Liberation Day” tariffs, as well as the tariffs on China, Mexico, and Mexico that Trump imposed to combat fentanyl trafficking.
A federal appeals court quickly stayed the Court of International Trade’s decision before it could take effect, while the Trump administration’s appeal worked its way through the courts.
At issue is whether Trump had the authority to enact tariffs without authorization from Congress through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the president the power to impose tariffs under an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
While the Trump administration has argued that the tariffs combat fentanyl trafficking and seek to settle the country’s trade imbalances, the Court of International Trade was unconvinced that the Trump administration demonstrated an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and that those tariffs “deal with the threats.”
In court filings, the Trump administration has argued that court’s decision is “riddled with legal errors” and “would significantly harm the United States if it were to take effect.” They have justified the tariffs by citing the country’s fentanyl crisis and the “grave threats to the United States’ national security and economy” stemming from trade imbalances.
“President Trump has found that America’s exploding trade deficit, the implications of that deficit for our economy and national security, and a fentanyl importation crisis that has claimed thousands of American lives constitute national emergencies,” lawyers with the Department of Justice have argued.
The Trump administration has also argued that invalidating the tariffs would “deprive the United States of a powerful tool for combating systemic distortions in the global trading system, thus allowing other nations to continue to hold American exporters hostage to their unreasonable, discriminatory, and sometimes retaliatory trade policies.”
The group of small businesses and state attorneys general have pushed back against those claims, arguing that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give Trump “unlimited tariff authority” and that he has failed to prove “an unusual and extraordinary threat.”
“The President’s chaotic assertion of that purported authority, which changed by the day and wreaked havoc on capital markets and the economy, illustrates both the breadth of powers that the President claims and the danger of unlimited authority in this domain,” they wrote.
Shotsie Michael Buck Hayes, 29, is shown in this booking photo. Danville Police Department
(DANVILLE, Va.) — The man who allegedly set fire to a Virginia councilman in an apparent personal attack has admitted to the crime, according to court documents.
Shotsie Michael Buck-Hayes allegedly confronted Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler, 38, at his office at Showcase Magazine on Wednesday and covered him with a flammable liquid, the Danville Police Department said. Both went outside, where Buck-Hayes allegedly set Vogler on fire, police said.
Police said Vogler was taken to a hospital in unknown condition. A criminal complaint said he suffered from “extreme burns.”
Buck-Hayes, 29, of Danville, fled the scene and was then stopped by officers a few blocks away, according to police.
It appears Vogler and Buck-Hayes know each other “and the attack stems from a personal matter not related to the victim’s position on Danville City Council or any other political affiliation,” police said.
“Vogler advised multiple people” that Buck-Hayes was responsible for the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
During a police interview, Buck-Hayes allegedly admitted to dumping gasoline on Vogler and said “it was his intention to kill Vogler,” the criminal complaint said.
Buck-Hayes was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding, police said.
Vogler, who was elected to the city council in 2012 at the age of 24, also works as the director of sales at Showcase Magazine, where he was attacked.
“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this act of violence,” Showcase Magazine said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Lee and his family as he receives medical care. The Showcase Magazine team is fully cooperating with law enforcement as they continue their investigation.”
Buck-Hayes was arraigned on Thursday and is being held without bail. His preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 30. Ed Lavado, an attorney representing Buck-Hayes, declined to comment on the matter when reached by ABC News.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Twenty-five people aboard a Delta Air Lines flight, headed from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, were hospitalized after the flight encountered “significant” turbulence Wednesday, the airline said.
Delta Air Lines Flight 56, with 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board, diverted to Minneapolis-St. Paul and landed safely shortly before 8 p.m. local time. The flight was operating on an Airbus A33-900.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Fire Department and paramedics responded to the gate to provide initial medical attention, the Metropolitan Airports Commission said.
Leeann Nash, who was on the flight with her husband, told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP that dinner service had just started on the flight when the turbulence came out of nowhere.
“There was actually no warning. It was a very abrupt, hard hit,” Nash said. “If you didn’t have your seat belt on — everyone that didn’t — they hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground, and the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground, and people were injured, and it happened several times, so it was really scary.”
The airline said 25 of those on board were taken to the hospital “for evaluation and care.”
“There were glass bottles flying around. And you know, those carts are very heavy, so we were fortunate that we had seat belts on at the time, but we still saw cellphones flying around quite a bit,” Nash added. “But I will hand it to the flight attendants, they were incredibly calm, very well trained and very responsive.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating.
Photo by NYPD News X Account / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Family, friends and members of the New York City Police Department will come together on Thursday for a funeral for the “hero” officer who was one of four people killed in the Midtown Manhattan mass shooting.
Didarul Islam, a 36-year-old NYPD officer, was off duty and working a security job when he was fatally shot by a gunman who opened fire at the 345 Park Avenue office building on Monday.
Islam, a Bangladeshi immigrant who joined the NYPD four years ago, is survived by his wife, who is eight months pregnant, and two young sons.
“He was doing the job that we asked him to do,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice, shot in cold blood, wearing a uniform that stood for the promise that he made to this city. He died as he lived — a hero.”
“He was the best of who we are,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “When an NYPD officer is killed doing his duty, it is not just a tragedy — it is a rupture in the soul of our city.”
Islam was assigned to a precinct in the Bronx. He previously worked as a school safety officer, New York ABC station WABC reported.
His funeral will be held on Thursday at Parkchester Jame Masjid, a mosque in the Bronx, WABC said. There will be a series of viewings followed by a prayer service. His internment will be in New Jersey.
“Didarul Islam represented the very best of our department. He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short,” the NYPD said. “We join in prayer during this time of incomprehensible pain. We will forever honor his legacy.”
The other three victims killed on Monday were: Aland Etienne, a security guard for the building; Wesley LePatner, a Blackstone executive who was a wife and mom; and Julia Hyman, a young employee at Rudin Management.
Schumer said Tuesday in a message to the families, “You are not alone. All of New York grieves with you. … The city will carry their memories forward.”
