Manhattan shooting survivor Sebije Nelovic, of Queens, said gunman 'pointed his gun at me'

A 65-year-old office cleaner who survived a deadly shooting rampage recounted her harrowing brush with the gunman, who pointed his AR-15-style rifle at her and immediately began firing, according to a statement she provided through her union.

Queens resident Sebije Nelovic was working at the high-rise building at 345 Park Ave. when police said the shooter, Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, stormed into the lobby Monday around 6:30 p.m. Authorities said he killed Didarul Islam, 36, an off-duty NYPD officer working security, and building security guard Aland Etienne in the lobby before heading upstairs.

Nelovic, who had been collecting garbage on the 33rd Floor, heard shots ringing out but believed they were engineers working. When the racket continued, she stepped out of the office and saw a glass door crumble.

"And this guy came in the middle of the door, and pointed his gun at me. He started shooting around me. I put my hands up and said, ‘I’m a cleaning lady. I’m a cleaning lady.’ But I realized — he comes with a machine gun. He’s not going to know who I am. He’s going to shoot, no matter what," Nelovic said in a statement shared by 32BJ Service Employees International Union, where she is one of among 90,000 members in New York City.

The Albanian native raced down the hallway and hid in a closet, locking the door behind her while Tamura continued discharging ammunition. She began thinking of Julia Hyman, one of the victims who was later found dead, and silently praying.

"He shot the door to the closet, and I was so scared. But I was OK. I heard him walk down the hallway, and then I remembered Julia. She always worked late, until 8 or 8:30 p.m. I knew she was at her desk, and I thought, 'God, help her.' The noises went away. I kept praying," she said.

Tamura fired 47 rounds, law enforcement told Newsday, killing four other people, including Blackstone employee Wesley LePatner, 43, before fatally shooting himself.

Nelovic said that while seeking refuge, her supervisor began calling and texting. After telling him where she was, she turned her phone off. She sat inside the closet until police arrived two or three hours later and didn’t tell her husband and son what happened until she got home.

Police are still tracing Tamura’s steps from Las Vegas to Manhattan. In suicide notes in his wallet, Tamura wrote that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, a degenerative brain condition that can result from the type of repeated violent hits to the head common in football.

Tamura played high school football but it’s unknown whether he suffered from CTE. He appeared to blame the National Football League of covering up the issue. The NFL is located in the building, but Tamura didn’t enter the league's facilities, instead he made his way through Rudin Management.

Nelovic said that since 1998 she showed up for her work shifts at the Park Avenue building without fear. But the ordeal has traumatized her.

"Every day, I get more stressed and shaken. A woman is dead on my floor — and it could have been me," she said. “I was safe there, and I was happy — for 27 years."

Newsday's Anthony M. DeStefano contributed to this story.