Topline
Wesley LePatner, an executive who oversaw Blackstone’s real estate fund, was among four killed Monday in a shooting at the investment firm’s Manhattan headquarters, Blackstone confirmed to Forbes.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the now-deceased shooting suspect likely targeted the NFL’s … More
Key Facts
LePatner, who served as CEO of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), was killed in a shooting Monday at the company’s headquarters, Blackstone said in a statement.
The shooting suspect killed himself and four people, including LePatner, and likely targeted the National Football League’s offices located in the same building as Blackstone, but went to the wrong floor, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.
“Words cannot express the devastation we feel,” Blackstone said, adding, “[LePatner] embodied the best of Blackstone.”
Who Is Wesley Lepatner?
LePatner joined Blackstone in 2014 after more than a decade at Goldman Sachs, according to Blackstone. While overseeing BREIT, a trust with a real estate portfolio totaling more than $53 billion in property, LePatner was also a member of Blackstone’s real estate investment committee. She served on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, the UJA-Federation of New York and the Yale University Library Council.
What Do We Know About The Other Manhattan Shooting Victims?
Adams said Tuesday that New York Police Department officer Didarul Islam, 36, was killed in the shooting, though the two other shooting victims have not been publicly identified. Islam had worked as a police officer in the city for three and a half years and was one of two New York police officers working as paid security detail in the building. The NFL told the New York Times one of its employees was seriously injured in the shooting, and league commissioner Roger Goodell said the employee was “currently in the hospital and in stable condition.”
Key Background
An emergency call about an active shooter in midtown Manhattan was made just before 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday, according to New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The suspected shooter, 27-year-old Shane Tamura, arrived just hours before the incident after driving cross-country, Tisch said, noting surveillance footage showed Tamura exiting his vehicle and entering 345 Park Avenue while carrying an M4 rifle. The shooter entered the building’s lobby and “immediately [opened] fire” on Islam before shooting a woman hiding behind a pillar, a security guard taking cover behind a desk and another man, Tisch said. The gunman then rode the elevator to the offices of the real estate firm Rudin Management on the building’s 33rd floor. One person was fatally shot on that floor before the gunman shot himself in the chest, Tisch said. It’s not immediately clear why Tamura targeted the building, and Tisch said law enforcement in Nevada informed them Tamura had a “documented mental health history.”