By MARY O’CONNOR FOR DAILY MAIL and SHAWN COHEN IN NEW KENT, VIRGINIA, FOR DAILY MAIL
The sister of the ex-NFL player named in New York City shooter Shane Tamura’s suicide note shared her heartbreak over football being tied to yet another family tragedy.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail, Robin Ellison, 65, said it was ’emotional’ and ‘disheartening’ hearing Tamura had mentioned her brother, Terry Long, the former Pittsburgh Steelers player who tragically took his own life in 2005.
And she revealed that her own son died of heatstroke aged just 15 following a football workout in high school.
Long was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by head injuries which is rife among some retired football players.
In his garbled suicide note, Tamura, a star football player in high school, vented his perceived grievances with the NFL and its handling of CTE.
In his chilling missive, Tamura – who was a promising high school player in California – appeared to claim to have the disease and wrote: ‘Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze.
‘You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you. Study my brain please, I’m sorry.’
Terry Long died by suicide in 2005 after drinking antifreeze at age 45. His sister Robin Ellison told Daily Mail she was deeply disturbed by Manhattan shooter Shane Tamura’s suicide note referencing her brother
Tamura was once a promising high school football player. He vented his grievances about the NFL and its handling of CTE in his suicide note
Tamura, 27, was caught on chilling surveillance footage wielding an M4 assault rifle as he entered the Midtown building that houses the NFL headquarters, where he gunned down four people Monday
New York Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s medical examiner will decide whether to test Tamura for CTE.
Ellison, who lives in Smyrna, Georgia, tearfully told Daily Mail her brother’s name returning to the national news served as a painful reminder of her family’s ‘bad experience’ with football.
She said: ‘It makes me very emotional, because I had a son Marcus who died of heat stroke the first day of practice and my brother died, something to do with football.
‘I get teared up because I really miss my little brother.
‘He was a big teddy bear. He loved his mother. It makes me sad.’
Tragically, she told how her son Marcus died in August 1999, aged just 15, after collapsing during a pre-season workout for his high school football team in Atlanta.
Officials classified his death as a ‘heat-related injury’.
Ellison said her brother’s tragic 2005 death was just one of her family’s painful experiences with football – her son Marcus, Terry Long’s nephew, died of heat stroke in 1999 at just 15 during a high school pre-season workout
Long’s sister said Tamura’s mention of her brother in his suicide note brought back ‘too many memories of the incident,’ adding that even the thought of attending a football game now feels overwhelming
Long died in June 2005, aged 45, after taking his own life by drinking antifreeze, according to a revised 2006 death certificate.
A coroner initially ruled that he died of meningitis after he was found unresponsive at his home. He died in the hospital and was later diagnosed with CTE.
Ellison, who is one of seven siblings, said her family shielded her from much of the trauma around her brother’s death after the loss of her son.
She added: ‘I couldn’t, I didn’t want to relate to it at the time [of Terry’s death], because it brought back too many memories of the incident with my son. I won’t even attend games right now.
‘My family have not had a good experience with football. With the death of a child and the death of a sibling, it is overwhelming.
Athletes with CTE, which Tamura claimed to have in his note, showed damage in their brains, including enlarged ventricles, indicating a shrinkage in brain space, holes in brain tissue, thinning in key areas and clogged blood vessels
Two of Tamura’s four victims have since been identified as Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner (left) and Cornell graduate Julia Hyman
‘It makes me sad to know that he [Tamura] used my brother’s name, and it brings tears in my heart, because football has been a tragic thing for me…and my family because we lost two family members due to football-related incidents.’
Long’s brother, Reginald Long, said he was ‘surprised’ by the news his brother had been mentioned by Tamura, but added: ‘The guy [Tamura] sounded like he had some illness, so the only thing I can do is pray for him and everybody who is involved.
‘They say he had some illness, so hopefully we just need to do a better job of working on the mentally ill.
‘People have some serious issues out here and we don’t address them as a country, as a community, so things like this happen.’
He suggested he and Long had been close growing up, but he didn’t know anything about his brother’s later struggles in life.
Long’s widow Lynne declined to comment on the mention of her husband in the shooter’s note when contacted at her home in New Kent, Virginia. ‘This is just a horrible, horrible, horrible situation,’ she said.
The other two victims killed by Tamura have been identified as NYPD officer Didarul Islam (left) and security guard Aland Etienne
Tamura had obtained a firearm permit from the Las Vegas Police Department. Long’s brother, Reginald, said the shooter sounded mentally ill and stressed that the country needs to address the mental health crisis to prevent tragedies like Monday night’s shooting
Officers have located the bloodied rifle Tamura used, which was found lying on the carpet of the office where the killer took his own life
Tamura, from Las Vegas, shot dead four people, including an off-duty cop, after storming 345 Park Avenue, in Midtown, Manhattan, on Monday evening, before turning the gun on himself.
Officials believe Tamura – who had a ‘documented mental health history’ – intended to target the NFL’s HQ on the fifth floor of the building but mistakenly took the wrong elevator up to the 33rd floor offices of building management firm, Rudin.
However, an employee of the NFL was ‘seriously injured’ after he was shot in the back – but still managed to alert his colleagues to allow them to escape.
Craig Clementi was on the phone with other league staff when he was struck in the back with a bullet allegedly shot by Tamura.
Clementi, who just recently welcomed a new baby, was able to tell his colleagues to evacuate the building and to stay safe.
Tamura played football at his high school in California as a running back, with his former coach Walter Roby telling NBC: ‘He came in, worked hard, kept his nose down.
The skyscraper in midtown Manhattan where investigators believe Tamura intended to target the NFL’s headquarters on the fifth floor of the building but mistakenly took the wrong elevator up to the 33rd floor offices of building management firm, Rudin
The Las Vegas home where Tamura lived with his parents
‘He was a quiet kid, well-mannered, very coachable. Whatever needed to be done, he would do. I’m just blown away right now.’
Long was born in South Carolina and played at college level for the East Carolina Pirates from 1980 until 1983.
He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a guard throughout his seven-year career, which ended in 1991.
He was reportedly suspended for violating the NFL’s steroid policy and attempted suicide, before later being admitted to a psychiatric ward for a mental health evaluation.
In the months before his suicide, Long reportedly faced legal issues including federal charges he fraudulently obtained loans for a chicken-processing plant which prosecutors allege he burned to the ground in September 2003 for the insurance money.
He was arrested in late March that year and released on $10,000 bond.
After his death, Long was diagnosed with CTE, joining the ranks of hundreds of ex-NFL players who were found to have the disease after their deaths.
In a family obituary seen by DailyMail.com, Long was described as ‘quick but shy’ and an ‘extremely caring and giving’ person who ’caused people to naturally gravitate towards him and vice versa’.
