Dr. Drew Sees No Brain Scan Clue for NYC Shooter, Compares to Dahmer
Dr. Drew weighed in on the Park Avenue gunman who killed four people with an AR-style rifle before taking his own life, comparing the case to Jeffrey Dahmer’s without even waiting for a brain scan.
Hey, I’m Riley Carter, here to deliver this to you with casual urgency but minimal fuss.
Okay, but like… why is this a thing?
Monday night in Midtown Manhattan turned into a nightmare when 43-year-old Shane Tamura stormed an office lobby on Park Avenue, opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle, and killed four innocent bystanders. Law enforcement sources say Tamura then shot himself in the chest on the 33rd floor after failing to reach his alleged target in an NFL office. He left behind a three-page note claiming he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and demanding his brain be preserved for study. Instead of siding with that plan, celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky jumped on Zoom Tuesday to argue that a postmortem brain scan would reveal almost nothing about Tamura’s violent motive.
According to the famous doc, brains need to be living to yield any real insight. As he told TMZ, the scan would at best confirm a neurological issue tied to a psychiatric illness, which is hardly surprising given Tamura’s own statement about CTE. Drawing a parallel that raised eyebrows, Dr. Drew pointed to Jeffrey Dahmer’s case. In the early 1990s Dahmer’s mother also petitioned to study her son’s brain to find a biological explanation for his serial murders, necrophilia, and cannibalism. But a judge ultimately sided with Dahmer’s father, ordering the brain’s cremation in December 1995 during a bitter custody battle.
“You need living brains to derive conclusions,” Dr. Drew explained, dismissing the idea that any scan could trace a direct line between tissue anomalies and homicidal intent. He underscored that historical cases like Dahmer’s ended the same way a cremated brain and no groundbreaking revelations about motive from dead tissue. While Tamura’s note blamed the NFL and CTE for his actions, Dr. Drew emphasized that motive is a psychological and situational puzzle, not a neurological x-ray.
Critics argue that studying brains postmortem has still yielded valuable data in football players and boxers who suffered from long-term head trauma. Supporters of Tamura’s idea might counter that every data point helps build a bigger picture around violence linked to repeated head injuries. Still, Dr. Drew stands firm on his position that only active neural function can tell us why someone goes off the rails.
The killer’s three-page note didn’t just mention CTE in passing – Tamura wrote that repeated head injuries from youth sports left him a shell of a man and he held the NFL responsible. That grievance echoed through social media feeds, stoking debates about how concussions are managed and whether aggressive legal action can ever link CTE to a sudden crime spree.
CTE has become a load-bearing word in modern headlines thanks to studies of former pro athletes and military vets. While research has tied behavioral changes like aggression and memory loss to long-term brain trauma, experts warn against treating CTE as a one-size-fits-all explanation for murder. Dr. Drew says this case is no exception.
Another wrinkle Tamura’s target apparently wasn’t random passersby but specifically a team’s office in that Midtown tower. When that attack failed he turned the rifle on people who simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That twist only deepens the question of motive which Dr. Drew insists can’t be zapped out of dead neural tissue.
Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee serial killer who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, died in prison in 1994 when an inmate attacked him with a metal rod. His case likewise ended with no postmortem brain research despite his mother’s pleas for examination. Legal records confirm a judge sided with Dahmer’s father in December 1995 ordering cremation over preservation.
Medical experts aren’t unanimous on Dr. Drew’s take. Some neuroscientists argue that even a non-functioning brain can show patterns of tau protein buildup or other markers that could shed light on disorders linked to aggression. But the famous radio and TV host of West Hollywood’s own odd couple pod has made it clear he’s not betting on that angle for Tamura’s brain.
Cool story, right? Catch you on the next scroll.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
