Editor’s Note: This article contains discussions of suicide. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can find resources in your area on the National Crisis Line website or by calling 988.
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (PIX11) — Pittsburgh Steelers player Terry Long was mentioned in a suicide note belonging to the gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office building Monday, according to authorities.
The offensive lineman played for the team from 1984 to 1991. He later died by suicide in 2005 after drinking antifreeze, and the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said chronic traumatic encephalopathy contributed to his death.
The National Institutes of Health defines chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, as a condition caused by repeated head impacts. The damage is similar to what’s seen in Alzheimer’s disease, and CTE can lead to dementia and death, according to officials.
Long’s cause of death on the certificate was officially inflammation of the lining of his brain and brain swelling from the antifreeze, according to reporting by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2006.
According to the report, Long was indicted by a federal grand jury on the accusation that he committed fraud for $1.2 million in state loans for his chicken-processing company three months before he died.
A report from the LA Times in 1991 stated Long had attempted to take his own life after failing an NFL steroid test. Long then checked himself into the psychiatric ward at Allegheny General Hospital for a mental health examination, the report said.
The New York Police Department said 27-year-old Shane Tamura, of Las Vegas, shot and killed four people inside a Manhattan office building on Monday. A note found on Tamura’s body after the shooting stated he had a brain injury and that he blamed the National Football League, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.