A shooting at Blackstone’s Manhattan headquarters on Monday evening has left four people dead, including senior real estate CEO Wesley LePatner.

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New York police identified the gunman as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, who entered the private equity firm’s offices at 345 Park Avenue and opened fire on the 33rd floor before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Among the victims were LePatner, a 43-year-old mother of two, and an NYPD officer responding to the scene.

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Blackstone confirmed LePatner’s death in a statement on Tuesday, describing the company as “heartbroken”. She was the firm’s global head of Core+ real estate and CEO of the $1.2 trillion firm’s flagship Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT).

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LePatner joined Blackstone in 2014 and helped expand the company’s Core+ real estate portfolio, which invests in commercial properties such as warehouses, rental housing, office buildings and hotels. She was a central figure in launching BREIT in 2017, which has grown into a major driver of the firm’s push to attract capital from wealthy individual investors.

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The motive for the shooting remains under investigation. Police said the gunman appeared to be acting alone and was not a current or former Blackstone employee.

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The incident has drawn comparisons to a string of recent high-profile workplace attacks in the United States. Last year, Luigi Mangione fatally shot UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson outside the company’s headquarters in Minnesota in what investigators described as a targeted assassination.

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Security analysts said Monday’s events highlight ongoing concerns around the ability of lone gunmen to gain access to corporate buildings, particularly in major financial centres like New York.

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Authorities are expected to release further details on the investigation, including any connections between the shooter and the victims, later this week.

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