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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Today, we'll hear from leaders of two relief organizations who have been struggling to save lives in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders and Mercy Corps. Can President Trump's acknowledgment of the starvation make difference to the short or long term situation? We'll also hear about the Trump EPA's new reported policy toward climate change, not regulating greenhouse gas emissions at all. At all. You heard that right.

We'll hear from food politics expert Marion Nestle on a new way the government may confuse you into getting diabetes, but we'll begin with the latest that we know about the mass shooting at the Blackstone building at Park Avenue and 52nd street in Midtown last night, around 6:30. New York City Police Officer Didarul Islam was killed. Three bystanders were killed. Police say the gunman, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, took his own life.

One development this morning, he apparently left a note blaming the NFL for having the brain injury known as CTE, Police say that he had played high school football, also that he had what they called a mental health history. Mayor Adams says Tamura was trying to get to the office of NFL headquarters, which is on the 33rd floor of that building, but got an elevator that didn't stop at that floor.

With us now, WNYC and Gothamist reporter Brittany Kriegstein. She is on the scene. Hi, Brittany. What an awful story to have to report. Thank you for coming on.

Brittany Kriegstein: Absolutely, Brian. Thank you for having me. This is really just a heartbreaking development here in Midtown.

Brian Lehrer: What's it like there right now?

Brittany Kriegstein: Things are, in one part, business as usual. You have a lot of folks in suits going to work, but you also have this really eerie scene outside the building, 345 Park Avenue. Police officers are stationed outside the door and you can actually see bullet holes and shattered glass just inside. You have press from all over the city, and probably some national outlets as well, here at the scene reporting.

You have some people stopping by to videotape or pay their respects, kind of hanging their heads, I would say. The flags here are at half mast, so obviously, this square block is in mourning, but of course, life goes on elsewhere.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. By the way, listeners, I don't know if we'll take any calls on this as opposed to just filling you in on the details, but if you were one of the many people in that Manhattan skyscraper last night, or can help report the story in any way, you can call in or text, 212-433-WNYC, or maybe if anyone else has a question, as details are still emerging. We always say in these situations that sometimes the early reports turn out to be wrong on some of the details, so questions welcome, as well as any of you who may have been there.

212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Brittany, because this just happened last evening, and many people may even be hearing this for the first time, can you walk us very briefly through the timeline of what actually occurred?

Brittany Kriegstein: Sure. This happened just before 6:30 PM last night. Police are saying that Shane Tamura got out of a black BMW that was double parked on Park Avenue between East 51st and 52nd streets. That was his car, they say, and he was wielding an M4 assault rifle, according to the NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Surveillance footage then showed him entering the building, 345 Park Avenue. He immediately shot the police officer in the lobby, which we now know was Officer Islam.

Then he went on to shoot and kill a security guard and a woman who took cover behind a pillar in the lobby. He shot and critically injured another man before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor. There, he shot and killed another woman before shooting himself in the chest, police say. That was four people killed, the 5th being our shooter, and then, one person is in critical condition, currently.

Brian Lehrer: I'm also seeing reports that a Blackstone executive was one of the victims and they've identified that person now, is that correct?

Brittany Kriegstein: That's right. We're just learning that this morning, the company is saying that that woman is Wesley LePatner, she was one of those who were shot at some point during the incident. We're not sure if that was in the lobby or upstairs. She was highly regarded at the company, as they called her a brilliant, passionate, warm and generous person, deeply respected within the firm and beyond, that embodied the best of Blackstone.

She has a husband and children, so the company says they are just praying for her family. She was a high ranking executive. More details are obviously emerging as we speak, but that was one of the victims identified early this morning.

Brian Lehrer: I just want to mention that the murdered police officer being hailed as a hero and whose wife, we are told, is currently pregnant with their third child. That hero slain police officer was an immigrant from Bangladesh, whose last name was Islam. When an individual immigrant commits a crime, many news outlets point out their immigrant status, especially if they're undocumented, even though statistics indicate that immigrants, including undocumented ones, commit crime at a lower rate than people born here.

Singling out the immigrant status of individual criminals makes it seem like immigrants are a risk overall. We never hear the news say after a crime, "And the suspect was born and raised in the United States," even though that's true in the large majority of cases, so we should start doing that as maybe a corrective. The least we can do this morning is highlight that the hero cop in this incident was an immigrant from Bangladesh, named Islam.

Brittany Kriegstein: Absolutely. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: What about the shooter, Brittany? You could say something about that, if you want.

Brittany Kriegstein: Absolutely. What we know so far is that the shooter, 27-year-old Shane Tamura, that he traveled across the country in his car over the weekend, from Las Vegas, Nevada, where police say he lived. He arrived here in New York City, parked the car, and then carried out this attack. It's unclear exactly what his ties are to this specific building or to New York, besides that note that police were talking about.

Just detailing his history with CTE, his mental illness, which they say he did have a history in Las Vegas, but they haven't gone into details about that yet. Police searched his car and found other items in there. A rifle case, loaded gun, ammunition magazines, a backpack and some medication that was prescribed to him, unclear exactly what it was, so of course more details will be coming out.

The only thing he really has on social media, that I've seen at this point, is a video from his high school football team, which actually figures somewhat prominently now in the case, now that we hear what's his potential motive, of course it's still early in the investigation, but if his potential motive was football related, that video does suggest some sort of history there.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Here's a 20 second clip of Mayor Adams on that on MSNBC this morning.

Mayor Adams: We have reason to believe that he was focused on the NFL agency that was located in the building. We're going to continue to investigate with our federal partners to ensure that we can find a reason.

Brian Lehrer: Can you tell us anything more about that? I know you're not a CTE expert, but that is a kind of brain injury that sometimes professional football players suffer from. My understanding is that CTE, whatever the symptoms may be, can't actually be diagnosed until after death.

Brittany Kriegstein: That's all very possible. CTE, it stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, it's a hard one to say, commonly abbreviated as CTE. It's just from repeated trauma playing a game like football. Other professional athletes have reportedly suffered from this. It's just unclear, from what we know now about Tamura's potential mental health history, we don't know much. It's just really hard to say what could have been the ties there to CTE, especially since he was not a professional athlete.

He played football in high school. It's just unclear, really, how he experienced these effects, if he experienced these effects, and what really motivated him to come all the way here and carry out this horrific attack.

Brian Lehrer: Right. That's just a lot of what we don't know. CTE might have contributed to mental health problems, which contributed to this shooting, or he might have had mental health problems that made him imagine that he had CTE, or none of the above. I think we just need to say that's all unclear right now. That video and the note that he left seem to indicate at least some of what was going on through his mind. You said that he drove his BMW, he had a BMW, from Nevada, from Las Vegas, all the way to New York City, to do this.

Brittany Kriegstein: That's what police are saying, that his car passed through several states on its way here over the weekend, including New Jersey, just about two hours before the attack. Since they are sure, at this point, that he acted alone, they're concluding that, yes, he drove his own car here. The car was registered to him, and he also had a licensed gun. This is something that we're also learning.

The gun that he used was apparently licensed to him in his home state. That's obviously something else we're going to be unpacking over the next several days and weeks.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Here's a text from a listener, who asks, "How on earth did he get that kind of rifle," suggesting that if he had a mental health history that had been documented, would that not have prevented him, under Nevada law and policy? I guess it's too early to know the answer to that. Right?

Brittany Kriegstein: Right. Just too early to know. Obviously, that is the question on so many people's minds this morning.

Brian Lehrer: Kathleen, in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kathleen. Kathleen, you there? Kathleen, in Harlem, once. Kathleen, in Harlem, twice. Well, I'm going to summarize what our screener told me Kathleen's question was. Kathleen said she's concerned about the wife of the slain police officer, Officer Islam. What's going to happen to her? The caller wanted to know, with her expecting a baby and already having two children. Again, I know you're just covering this breaking news.

I don't know if you know all of NYPD policy, city policy, with respect to the family of slain police officers, but any indication that you know about what's going to happen to her and how she would get taken care of?

Brittany Kriegstein: [crosstalk] Sure. Yes, unfortunately, I have covered police officers dying in the line of duty in the past. What I can say is that there is a vast support network for those families. They get a lot of support from the NYPD, I believe, financially, emotionally, and everything else. I actually saw reports this morning that an outpouring of community came to the officer's home. I believe he lives in the Bronx. That was the precinct where he worked, in the 47.

Members of the Bangladeshi community were there, bringing food, just sharing stories about his life and talking about what an inspiration he was. I imagine that that community will be coming together in a big way to support this family as they deal with this unimaginable loss.

Brian Lehrer: Here's Jonathan, in Manhattan, calling in, who says he's a neurologist who does brain injury rehab and knows some things about CTE. Jonathan, thank you for calling in. You're on WNYC.

Jonathan: Thank you, Brian. Long time, first time. Yes. I'm a neurologist, Dr. Fellus, and not only do I treat a lot of traumatic brain injury and rehabilitation, but I also treat a lot of former NFL players currently. Yes, unfortunately, his behavior is not at all unexpected, that kind of impulsivity, or what we say, disinhibition, acting without considering consequences. I think it's just important to raise awareness. It doesn't take a whole lot of brain injuries to cause that.

Obviously, we can't know for sure. Your guest says that, of course, the only way to diagnose it is at autopsy. I think we're getting also better imaging techniques now, that we can hint at it. We can test for certain-- these proteins that accumulate in the brain. There's better testing for that now. That is something called tau, and it's consistent with what we see on autopsy, so--

Brian Lehrer: Listener asks a question that maybe you can answer, Jonathan, this text says, "Will they do an autopsy on the shooter, since CTE can only be diagnosed after death?"

Jonathan: In my opinion, it's very likely. This is obviously-- It's a murder, right? They're going to gather information and it would absolutely be reasonable. I think the public wants to know and science wants to know. There's a famous brain bank up in Boston Dr. Ann McKee keeps. There's a lot of these players who donate their brains, so that we can understand how much CTE is associated with what degree of change.

Of course, let's be frank. We don't know that he could have had mental illness separate and apart from brain injury. Let's not rush to conclusions, but just raising the discussion, I think is super important for the public.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Can someone get CTE just from high school football?

Jonathan: Yes, absolutely. There's plenty of evidence of that, already. Yes. Look, it's less common these days, but from his age, sure, because it's all of the practice, collisions that occur, and high speed. You just don't need, if you're going full force, in practices and games, for even a few years. Absolutely. There is plenty of documentation for that.

Brian Lehrer: It does seem to me-- I'll keep you on, I appreciate your call, for one more question. It does seem to me that a few years ago, there was a lot of focus on this particular type of injury becoming as common as it was among NFL players in particular. There was even a lot of talk of, "Well, gee, maybe pro football is going to fade as a spectator sport in the United States because more parents won't want their kids playing football, and then that'll trickle up and the whole thing would wind up with a stigma.

I think the opposite has happened. We see the-- I think the stat is, out of the 100 most watched television shows last year, 93 of them were NFL games. I'm just curious if you follow this trajectory at all and you're surprised about how much this has ceased to become a topic around pro football.

Jonathan: I do follow it and I'm torn, as a professional versus just a spectator. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: [crosstalk] Human?

Jonathan: A human. Yes, thank you. [chuckles] It does go in cycle. Look, I think the NFL, from what I understand, has done a lot to mitigate on the side of early injury, early contact, and reducing the amount of contact that goes on in practices at younger ages. They're saving themselves for games. The research is ongoing, but people are always going to make-- as humans, right? It's a free country. We can all make decisions every day that cause self harm.

This is just out in the open, right? It's public, and it's a spectator sport. People are profiting from it. This is the way the the world is. Unfortunately, people make bad decisions every day that cause self injury. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Doctor, we really appreciate you calling in. Thank you very much. Again, we should say that we don't really know if the shooter in this case had CTE, if it was caused by his high school football history, but it does seem that he had this in his head when he came to the building where the NFL headquarters are in Midtown yesterday, and committed this mass murder.

Brittany, and back to our reporter, Brittany Kriegstein, on the scene, at 52nd in Park. We have a text that asks, "How did the shooter escape notice? Because the surveillance footage clearly shows him walking with a gun, a big gun. Did no one see this? How could that not be noticed?" Writes a listener.

Brittany Kriegstein: Yes, that is such a good question. Obviously, still being unpacked. This is a very busy area of midtown Manhattan. It would be crazy to see somebody walking down the street with a gun like that, but what I can tell you is that once he entered the building, he acted very quickly, shooting that police officer and shooting the security guard, which Mayor Adams said this morning was key, because the elevator in the building was apparently set up so that the security guard could stop it if he saw any harm or any issues.

He had been killed very quickly, so he wasn't able to take that security step. That's how the shooter, according to the mayor, gained access to the elevator. This building, it's important to note, did have some other security measures in place. The mayor was talking about bulletproof rooms that some of the employees could take shelter in, that, apparently, they did. Maybe that saved some more lives.

As far as how the shooter got from his vehicle to the front door of the building without being stopped is really a huge question that we're going to be wondering about, and hopefully, some more information comes of it.

Brian Lehrer: Before you go, my understanding is that part of Park Avenue is open again. Is the scene, at least outside the building, now pretty typical for a very hot Midtown morning? Are people who work in that building, which has many companies, it's-- how tall is that skyscraper going? Are people going to work?

Brittany Kriegstein: Yes. Yes, in some ways, it's a typical scene. You have cars passing by on the street, of course, but not going into the building. It doesn't seem like anybody is working from there today. I'm sure police are continuing to investigate. I see a sniffing dog here. I see officers stationed outside. The glass in the front of the building is shattered. Not only is that a safety hazard, but of course, it's incredibly traumatic for some of these employees to go back to work after what happened here in this building.

I imagine that some of the companies are dealing with that, maybe urging people to work from home or seek some counseling today. Obviously, Manhattan is busy. People are passing by here on the sidewalk, some wondering what's happening as tons of reporters, maybe dozens of reporters are sitting out here doing our live shots, respectively updating our readers, listeners, and viewers. It's a difficult morning to be out here, but everyone is doing their jobs.

Brian Lehrer: As are you, and we appreciate your reporting on this. Probably emotionally difficult just to be at that scene and report this kind of story. WNYC and Gothamist breaking news reporter, Brittany Kriegstein. Thank you very much.

Brittany Kriegstein: Thank you so much, Brian.

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