Manhattan shooting puts new emphasis on office safety

Companies nationwide could be spurred by Monday's mass shooting in midtown Manhattan to rethink how they keep their employees safe, security experts told Newsday.

"What crime prevention strategies are you utilizing?" said Joseph Sordi, president of Farmingdale-based Strategic Security Corp., which advises companies on security nationwide.

"Are there multiple entrances that people could go through? If you have pedestrian access in one, and employee access in another, you could create this layered effect, where you're limiting exposure," Sordi said.

On Monday, the gunman was captured by surveillance camera walking with purpose on Park Avenue, an assault rifle slung over his shoulder, before he entered the lobby of an office building at 345 Park Ave. about 6:30 p.m. and opened fire. The shooter, identified as Shane Tamura, 27, of Las Vegas, killed four people, including an off-duty NYPD officer working security, and himself.

While there’s no simple solution to thwart a lone wolf attack, a multipronged approach is the best defense. The goal is to stop or at least delay a suspect from entering the building, because once there’s a breach, the stakes are harder to control, experts said.

Among the tactics businesses need to bolster security checkpoints — consider AI-employed video surveillance to detect threats; conduct lockdown and shelter in place drills; and provide employee active shooter training and detection, said Sordi, a former NYPD sergeant.

But security enhancements can come with a price that companies might be reluctant to pay, he added.

"Those stakeholders that have the ability to make these types of investments look at it from the perspective of why am I going make this substantial contribution when there's really no return on my investment. If nothing's happening, there's really no value there," Sordi said. "I would turn around and contest, 'What is the value of somebody's life.'"

Some safety checks that require less money but are equally important require monitoring and upkeep of current efforts.

"It's not always about adding more technology. It's having the proper equipment, policies and procedures and then maintaining them," said Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and a former chief of police in Bergen County, New Jersey.

That could include checking whether door locks and crisis communication tools are working that can activate a faster response, Higgins said.

Workers confronting the threat of an active shooter are advised to run, hide and, as a last resort, fight their attacker with whatever objects are at their disposal. While hiding in a room, workers should pile up as much furniture and as many objects between the door and the shooter, taking cover behind the makeshift barrier, with the hopes that the round slows down or is deflected. Bulletproof rooms are another safety option, if available.

"There's going to be a lot of companies that are going to want to train up their employees on active shooters if they haven't before ... and consider ballistically protected rooms," Higgins said, adding that even layers of protection might not be enough to stop an active threat.

Brian Hammer, who several years ago helped developed an active shooter technical report for the Illinois-based American Society of Safety Professionals, said: "It's a reminder to anybody who works in an office that it can happen again. If it can happen in New York City, probably a city that's the best protected in the country, it could happen anywhere."

Newsday's John Asbury contributed to this story.

By Lorena Mongelli

lorena.mongelli@newsday.com

Lorena Mongelli has been reporting for Newsday since 2021. Prior to that, she covered breaking news at the New York Post.