NFL reacts to the shooting at the league office building that killed 4 people

NEW YORK (AP) — Graham Gano stayed late at the New York Giants' practice facility Monday watching news coverage of a gunman killing four people at a Manhattan office building that includes the NFL headquarters.

“I was praying for just whoever was involved immediately,” said Gano, a veteran kicker and the Giants' union representative. “It’s sad to see no matter who it is, league office or not.”

Gano, fellow players, coaches and others learned Tuesday that the target was the NFL itself, Mayor Eric Adams said, with the shooter picking the wrong elevator bank and getting off on a different floor. A league employee was among those wounded, according to Commissioner Roger Goodell, and all the victims were in the thoughts of members of the football community across the country with training camps in full swing.

“Our hearts go out to the people in New York, especially the families of the people that passed,” three-time Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "The people at the league office that had to go through all that. It’s a bad deal. We’ve got to try to keep peace somewhere here. There’s too much of this.”

Goodell said in a memo to staff that a league employee was seriously injured in the attack and was hospitalized in stable condition.

“We are deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively and to Officer Islam, who gave his life to protect others,” said Goodell, referring to Didarul Islam, an off-duty police officer working a corporate security detail who was killed in the attack.

Cleveland Browns owner Dee Haslem, flanked by her husband, Jimmy, said in remarks at camp, “We honor the policeman that also died in the line of duty, and our prayers are with the ones that are injured.”

In another memo sent Tuesday evening, Goodell said the league employee was surrounded by family members and “We are all continuing to hope for and support his full recovery.” He instructed those working in the New York office to work remotely through at least Aug. 8 and said there would be a virtual town hall Wednesday.

“This has been a challenging time for our entire team,” Goodell said. “Thank you to all of you for the compassion, care, and support you are showing to one another right now. It means so much to see how our team is pulling together. In the midst of this difficult time, we hold on to hope and optimism for healing and brighter days ahead.”

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson said the shooting “keeps things in perspective as we enter training camp and the guys are going hard that there’s a little bit more to life than just football.”

Investigators believe Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, was trying to get to the NFL offices after shooting several people in the building’s lobby, then another in a 33rd-floor office on Monday, before he killed himself, authorities said.

“It’s always tough to hear things like that and really to try to stay focused,” New York Jets coach Aaron Glenn said. “You have to because you have a job to do, but you think about the families that go through that and it’s tough.”

Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, and a rambling note found on his body suggested that he had a grievance against the NFL over a claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that can be diagnosed only by examining the brain after a person dies.

Tamura played high school football in California a decade ago but never in the NFL.

Giants coach Brian Daboll opened his pre-practice news conference in East Rutherford, New Jersey, by referencing the shooting and saying he had not had any conversations with players or staff about the situation or if they were concerned for their safety. Gano expressed no worry.

“Our security staff here is fantastic,” Gano said. “I think we’ve got one of the best. ... We’re fully confident in our security team here.”

Three-time Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons saw reports of the shooting on Tuesday morning. He didn’t have a chance to read up on the attack before practice at 8 a.m., but Simmons said that’s why mental health is one of the topics brought up in football circles these days.

“Mental health is a big thing in this world, and it’s our job, especially in this building," Simmons said. "One thing we talked about as the leaders you never know when a guy’s last day may be in this building or he could be on this team forever. So, I just want to treat everybody the same.”

AP Pro Football Writers Rob Maaddi in Tampa, Florida; Dennis Waszak in Florham Park, New Jersey; and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee; AP Sports Writers Charles Odum in Flowery Branch, Georgia; Dave Skretta in St. Joseph, Missouri; John Wawrow in Pittsford, New York; and Brett Martel in Metairie, Louisiana; and AP freelance writer Tom Withers in Berea, Ohio, contributed to this report.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

A general view shows 345 Park Ave, a scene of Monday's deadly shooting, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Emergency response vehicles crowd 52nd Street outside a Manhattan office building where two people were shot, including a New York police officer, Monday, July 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Flanked by New York Mayor Eric Adams, right, and NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, left, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch speaks during a news conference at New York Presbyterian Weil Cornell Medical Center where a police officer was brought after being shot at a Manhattan office building, Monday, July 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Atlanta Falcons Coach Raheem Morris speaks to the media prior to the first open training NFL football camp on Thursday, July 24, 2022, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll speaks to the media during Back Together Weekend at the team's NFL football training camp, Sunday, July 27, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar insisted Friday that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention.

Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.

“Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state,” the country’s representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.

African nation Gambia brought a case at the court in 2019 alleging that Myanmar's military actions amount to a breach of the Genocide Convention that was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Some 1.2 million members of the Rohingya minority are still languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.

As hearings opened Monday, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his nation filed the case after the Rohingya “endured decades of appalling persecution, and years of dehumanizing propaganda. This culminated in the savage, genocidal ‘clearance operations’ of 2016 and 2017, which were followed by continued genocidal policies meant to erase their existence in Myanmar.”

Hlaing disputed the evidence Gambia cited in its case, including the findings of an international fact-finding mission set up by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.

“Myanmar’s position is that the Gambia has failed to meet its burden of proof," he said. "This case will be decided on the basis of proven facts, not unsubstantiated allegations. Emotional anguish and blurry factual pictures are not a substitute for rigorous presentation of facts.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi represented her country at jurisdiction hearings in the case in 2019, denying that Myanmar armed forces committed genocide and instead casting the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led as an unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.

The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.

Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.

Gambia rejects Myanmar's claims that it was combating terrorism, with Jallow telling judges on Monday that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from Myanmar’s pattern of conduct.”

In late 2024, prosecutors at another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya. The request is still pending.

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2017, file photo, smoke rises from a burned house in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, where the vast majority of the country's 1.1 million Rohingya lived, Myanmar. (AP Photo, File)