(Reuters) -The first word of a deadly shooting spree during rush hour in Midtown Manhattan on Monday came into the New York 911 system at 6:28 p.m. (2228 GMT) and more calls soon flooded in, according to a detailed recount of the shooting that left at least five dead, including the gunman.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference that surveillance video showed the suspected gunman, Shane Tamura, leave a double-parked black BMW on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd street. Carrying an M4 rifle in his right hand, Tisch said he crossed to the building’s entrance.
Surveillance video then showed Tamura enter the lobby, “turn right and immediately open fire on an NYPD officer.”
Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas who appears to have driven across country over three days to New York, next shot a woman taking cover behind a pillar, “and proceeds through the lobby, spraying it with gunfire,” Tisch said, in terse recap of the shooting.
Tamura encountered his next victim as he made his way to the elevator bank, “where he shoots a security guard who was taking cover behind the security desk.”
Another male was also shot in the lobby, Tisch said, citing a statement from the victim from the hospital.
Tamura, whom Tisch has been told by Nevada police has a history of mental illness, then summoned an elevator. When it opened, a woman stepped out and walked past him, unharmed, Tisch said. Tamura then entered the elevator, riding it to the offices of real estate firm Rudin Management on the 33rd floor.
Once there, “he begins to walk the floor, firing rounds as he traveled.”
“One person was struck and killed on that floor,” Tisch said.
Lastly, Tamura “proceeds down a hallway and shoots himself in the chest.”
“In total, we have five innocent victims … four innocent civilians and our police officer.”
(Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Frank McGurty and Michael Perry)
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