A deadly shooting at a New York City office tower on Monday exposed the vulnerability of corporate executives and employees even inside the commercial core of America’s financial capital, prompting reviews of security procedures at buildings across Manhattan.
At 345 Park Avenue, home to investment firm Blackstone Inc., consulting firm KPMG, building landlord Rudin Management Co. and the National Football League, an armed man opened fire in the lobby before taking an elevator to the 33rd floor and then turning his gun on himself. The shooting, about a half-mile from where a UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive was slain on the sidewalk in a targeted killing in December, will once again raise calls for increased protective measures.
But it also revealed the limits of the overlapping webs of security — building, corporate and municipal — that must work in concert to keep people safe. In this case those protective measures, including armed off-duty police officers, didn’t prevent the gunman, 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, from accessing the lobby or reaching the upper floors of the building.
The property remained closed on Tuesday as authorities continue their investigation, according to a statement from Rudin, a 100-year-old real estate firm that owns major office buildings around the city. Security at the building will be beefed up in the days and weeks ahead, a move that other landlords will likely follow.
“We do have security in our buildings but we don’t have armed guards,” said Chris Schlank, founder of Savanna Real Estate, a property investment firm with offices at nearby 430 Park Avenue. Schlank said he will now address each of Savanna’s properties to determine what needs to be done.
Keycard Turnstyle
It’s unclear how Tamura, once inside the building, got past a keycard-reading turnstile and into an elevator. Most office turnstiles are simply optical readers that don’t present much of a barrier to entry, according to one security professional who declined to be identified speaking about a vulnerability. As for the elevator access, a common scenario is what’s called “tailgating,” where an unauthorized intruder simply enters an elevator that was already called by someone else.
“When you come in armed, there are few physical security measures in any office building that will prevent you from getting where you want to go,” said Dave Komendat, a former chief security officer at Boeing Co. and now a partner at Corporate Security Advisors.
Landlords like Rudin are in charge of security for high-rise office towers and coordinate with security staff employed by their tenants, along with local law enforcement. Senior corporate executives sometimes have their own security guards. But the killing of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, who had no security with him, showed it’s a protective layer reserved for a select few.