AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Shane Tamura is the man accused of opening fire in Midtown Manhattan yesterday and killing four people. He grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, where he was a successful high school football player. Tamura's target appears to have been the National Football League, which has its headquarters in the building where the shooting happened. In a note recovered by New York authorities, Tamura claimed to have CTE. That's a brain disorder that can be caused by repetitive head trauma. CTE can only be diagnosed after death. Steve Futterman spoke with some of those who remember Shane Tamura, the football player.
STEVE FUTTERMAN, BYLINE: In 2015, Shane Tamura was a star for his high school football team.
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JACOB POLLON: Hey, we're here with standout running back Shane Tamura from the Granada Hills football team. Big 35-31 victory against Kennedy tonight.
FUTTERMAN: On the night of this interview, Tamura scored two touchdowns and helped lead his squad to a come-from-behind victory. Here in this scratchy recording, you can hear him talking about coming back to win.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHANE TAMURA: We were down 10-0, and our coach kept saying, don't hold your heads down. Don't hold your heads down.
POLLON: You know, you talk to him. He's playing football. He was like a regular high school kid. And then he does something like this. It's just - it was just - it's kind of, like, whoa.
FUTTERMAN: That's Jacob Pollon. He was the reporter who interviewed Tamura. Today, former teammates were expressing similar thoughts.
MASON THOMAS: You know, quickly saw the news and just saw his face, and my heart just dropped. You never ever think something like that could happen to somebody you knew.
FUTTERMAN: Mason Thomas was a wide receiver and cornerback on the team. For the last 24 hours, he says many players from the Granada Hills High School squad had been texting one another.
THOMAS: He was just, like, one of the guys. He worked really hard on the field, and he would joke around with us. He would laugh with us. Yeah, nothing could have ever predicted, you know, that an event like this would happen.
FUTTERMAN: Thomas may have more of an understanding into all this than other teammates. After high school, he went to college and studied psychology. Today, he's an adjunct professor of psychology. He teaches at Azusa Pacific College (ph).
THOMAS: He was just a good kid from what I knew. It was just my - the time I spent with him was cool. And I just wish it went differently for him. I guess that's all I can really think of.
FUTTERMAN: The issue of CTE and football athletes has been a growing concern for decades. The NFL has come under criticism in the past for not responding to the problem. But in 2013, the league agreed to a $765 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by players for concussion-related injuries. While it's typically thought that it takes a lifetime of hits to develop CTE, that's not the case.
CHRIS NOWINSKI: CTE is being diagnosed in people young. There was just recently a 15-year-old diagnosed with CTE. We're giving it to people early.
FUTTERMAN: Chris Nowinski is a former Harvard football player who is now a neuroscientist and works with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a group that has long called for sports leagues to become more responsible.
NOWINSKI: Studies have shown, with putting sensors on helmets, that youth football players are getting hit in the head just as hard as college football players. Our eyes deceive us because they're not running as fast, but how fast their head moves when it's hit is actually very similar.
FUTTERMAN: After Los Angeles, Tamura moved to Las Vegas, where he most recently worked as an overnight security guard at a casino. The only way to confirm whether someone suffers from CTE is after death, following a brain autopsy. In a suicide note found at the scene, New York police say Tamura asked that his brain be studied, and he wrote, I'm sorry.
For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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