NYC shooting: What we know about the victims, suspect Shane Tamura

A lone attacker armed with an assault-style rifle killed four people, including a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer, before fatally shooting himself inside a skyscraper in New York’s Manhattan area, according to the police.

The shooting is still under “active investigation”, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters at a news conference late on Monday. Police said the motive behind the shooting was still unknown.The rampage happened at the skyscraper – home to the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL) and Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, among others.

So, who were the victims of the latest mass shooting in the United States? Who was the suspect, and what was his motive?

What more do we know about the shooting?
The incident took place after 6pm local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday at 345 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Police Commissioner Tisch said surveillance video showed the man exiting a BMW just before 6:30pm carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building.

Then he started firing, killing a police officer working a corporate security detail and then hitting a woman who tried to take cover as he sprayed the lobby with gunfire.

The man made his way to the lift and shot a guard at a security desk, and shot another man in the lobby.

He then took the lift to the 33rd-floor offices of the company that owned the building, Rudin Management, and shot dead one person on that floor.

The bloodshed came to an end when the attacker fatally shot himself in the chest.“It felt like it was a quick two shots and then it was rapid fire,” Nekeisha Lewis told The Associated Press news agency.

Windows shattered, and a man ran from the building saying, “Help, help. I’m shot,” Lewis, who was eating dinner with friends on the plaza, said.

This shooting is the 254th mass shooting in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive – a nonprofit that tracks gun-related violence.

The group defines a mass shooting incident as one in which four or more people, excluding the attacker, are killed or injured by firearms.

Where in Manhattan did the shooting occur?
“What we know so far,” said Tisch, is that “surveillance video shows a male exit a double-parked black BMW on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets, carrying an M4 rifle in his right hand.”

He then walked into the 44-storey skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue, which is home to several big firms, including KPMG and Deutsche Bank.

The building, about a block east of St Patrick’s Cathedral, is located near Rockefeller Centre, just a few blocks south of Central Park.