Furniture Fortresses: How Desks & Sofas Became Shields During Deadly Manhattan Shooting?

A deadly shooting at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan on July 28, killed 5, including an NYPD officer.

Employees in the Blackstone building barricaded themselves inside their offices while the shooter was active (PHOTO: X/@SpencerHakimian)

A fatal shooting rampage at a high-rise building in mid-Manhattan on Monday evening resulted in the deaths of five individuals, including one New York City police officer and the alleged gunman. The harrowing experience had workers taking to blocking office doors with desks as the gunman terrorised the skyscraper, a move authorities say could have helped preserve lives.

The shooting took place at about 6:00 PM (local time) at 345 Park Avenue, a large office building that is home to top tenants including hedge fund behemoth Blackstone, auditor KPMG, and the headquarters of the National Football League. Despatches of shots rapidly closed down the Park Avenue area as hundreds of police officers arrived.

The alleged gunman, Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, is said to have fired shots at an NYPD officer in the lobby of the building at 6:40 PM. He later went up to the 33rd floor, where he locked himself in, ostensibly on the 32nd floor. Witnesses had reported the gunman going "floor by floor" as employees were about to close up for the day.

In the midst of the rampage, disturbing photos circulated online, depicting workers in business clothes stacking furniture and workstations in front of their office doors to form precarious barricades that went all the way up to the ceiling. Although these images are not independently confirmed, they reflect the harrowing attempts by those who were locked in.

This is how the employees in the Blackstone building barricaded themselves inside their offices while the shooter was active. pic.twitter.com/M7pMyWP9zJ

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) July 29, 2025

Police subsequently verified the area had been "contained and the single gunman is deceased," and the shooter was named as Shane Tamura, who killed himself. Authorities revealed Tamura, in doing so, had permitted a female to leave an elevator and walk past him unscathed before he was killed.

The dead police officer was named as Didarul Islam, 36, a Bangladeshi immigrant and three-and-a-half-year veteran of the NYPD. New York City Mayor Eric Adams commended the officer, saying, "He loved this city and everybody we talked to said he was a man of faith and a man that believed in God and believed in living the life of a godly man." Officer Islam is survived by two young children, his wife being pregnant with their third at the time.

Eyewitness Shad Sakib described being given a public address warning to take shelter in place. "Everybody was confused, like, 'Wait, what's going on?' And then somebody finally realized that it's online; that somebody walked in with a machine gun," he explained to AFP. Another woman, who wished not to be identified, said, "I was in the building. He went floor by floor."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams mourned on social media, saying he was "heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown, and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer in my thoughts."

The attack has again raised alarm about gun violence and workplace safety in big cities.