Nearly 24 hours after a deadly Midtown mass shooting that left four people dead, including an off-duty police officer, detectives from the NYPD Crime Scene Unit combed through the plaza outside 345 Park Ave. on Tuesday.
Two shattered lobby windows were a stark reminder of the violence of 27-year-old Shane Tamura, who opened fire on the ground and 33rd floors of the building, before ultimately fatally shooting himself in the chest.
A row of television crews stood facing the entrance of 345 Park Ave., which remains partially cordoned off, as a growing memorial of flowers surrounded the plaza.
Police officers were stationed at key entrances around the building as workers and local vendors, blanketed by a quiet unease, returned to their nearby posts.
The office tower houses the NFL headquarters among other high-profile tenants. Investigators are still examining whether Tamura had specifically targeted the league’s offices.
Mourning officer slain in mass shooting
Among the victims was Police Officer Didarul Islam, who had been working a security detail inside the building when Tamiea opened fire in the lobby.
Islam’s death reverberated deeply among private security guards in the neighborhood, many of whom consider the officers posted in Midtown as part of an extended workplace family.
Jay, a security guard at the neighboring 375 Park Ave., said he was home when the shooting happened but felt the impact as soon as he returned to work.
“I didn’t know him personally,” Jay said of Officer Islam, “but when I heard a fellow officer was killed, it hit hard. That could’ve been any of us.”
Like other nearby security officers who spoke to this paper, Jay’s building is still on high alert. He said there are talks of possibly upping their building’s security measures, but in the meantime, the heavy police presence in the area brings some comfort.
“My wife told me not to go to work, but I told her it’s the safest place to be right now, and it was an isolated incident,” he added. “But it’s a crazy, crazy world.”
Recalling an evening of horror
Nearby office workers said they first learned of the shooting through a flurry of messages and alerts that rippled through email threads and Slack channels.
Charles, 23, who works at 280 Park Ave. and spoke to amNewYork at a Greek food truck by the crime scene, said his building did not go into lockdown, but people were on edge.
“There were a lot of messages going back and forth about the shooting — mostly warnings to stay safe,” he said. “We left about 30 minutes later than usual, just to be sure.”
Scott Corcoran works around the block but left at 5:30 before the shooting. “It’s crazy that something could happen like that.”
“I actually know the engineers of this building, too,” he said. “Could have been one of them. Thankfully, I reached out to the people I knew, and they weren’t here.”
Robert Weathers, who works on Park Ave. and 49th St., was not in Midtown at the time of Monday’s shooting but was still “shocked, and maybe sadly, desensitized” to learn of Tamura’s cross-country journey to carry out the act of gun violence.
“I grew up in Chicago, New York, to me, it’s one of the safest places compared to there,” he said. “But we’ve seen our society falling apart for a while. Got Donald Trump helping with that, too.”
Osvaldo López, a line cook at the Lobster Club on East 53rd Street, said he watched the events unfold through live videos and now feels “weird” being back at work. He regularly takes lunch breaks sitting on the steps of 345 Park Ave, where he “would always see police, security, the people who walked in” and often greeted the security officers.
Reflecting on returning to normal, López said, “It doesn’t feel right. You see all this, and it reminds you of what happened yesterday. I could have never expected something like this to happen.”
“I think that in no place do I feel safe now,” he added.
Vincent Torres, who works at 595 Madison Ave., said he went home at 2 p.m. Monday. Shortly afterward, a coworker called him to tell him what had happened.
“We walked right over there,” he said, pointing toward 345 Park Ave. “Yeah. So we couldn’t believe it. Honestly, it was a little crazy. But yeah, you never know what people go through.”
Torres, who does electrical work in Midtown buildings but has never worked inside 345 Park Ave., said returning to the neighborhood Tuesday felt routine.
“This New York City, every day, it’s something new,” he said. “People are crazy. I don’t know what else to say, but he must have lost it. I don’t know what that — what he was going through. But, you know, everyone is going through their own problems. I guess he dealt with them the wrong way.”
Asked if he feels safe: “I’m safe. Everyone is safe,” he said. “I feel safe. I’m walking around, I’m getting lunch right next to the place.”
