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, as victims from the attack are identified.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the now-deceased shooting suspect likely targeted the NFL’s office in Blackstone’s building.
Associated Press
Key Takeaways
- 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.
- LePatner, 43, was married to Evan LePatner, with whom she had two children with and met while freshmen at Yale University in 1999, according to announcement of their wedding in 2006.
- 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.”
Crucial Quote
“We cannot properly express the grief we feel upon the sudden and tragic loss of Wesley,” the LePatner family told Forbes in a statement. “At this unbearably painful time, we are experiencing an enormous, gaping hole in our hearts that will never be filled, yet we will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created.”
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.
LePatner received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and 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. The Heschel School said in a statement that LePatner was a “uniquely brilliant and modest leader and parent,” noting she has two children, including a seventh grader at the school.
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.” Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ, a union representing New York City workers, said in a statement Tuesday that Aland Etienne was killed in the shooting while Etienne worked as a security guard in the building.
The Rudin family, which operates the real estate firm Rudin Management in the building, said in a statement to the Times one of its employees was among those killed, though they did not identify them.
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 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.”
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