The office cleaner describes face to face with the suspicious gunfire of Manhattan

On Monday afternoon, Sebije Nelovic, a cleaner in 345 Park Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan, began his daily sweep of the glassy building of great height where he has worked for 27 years.

Two hours after his turn, while he was at work on the 33rd floor, the sound of the shots arrived.

In a long statement shared by the International Union of Employees of the Service of 32BJ on Thursday, Nelovic, 65, described face face to face with Shane Devon Tamura, the 27-year-old gunman who, according to the authorities, entered the office tower shortly before 6:30 pm, armed with an Ar-15 high-power style rifle, and killed four people, including a police officer of the city York of the city of New York.

When Nelovic listened to the sound of the shots on the 33rd floor, he said he left the office that was cleaning and folded the corner where he could see the glass door next to the reception counter.

“Suddenly, the glass door was trembling. It began to fall – boom. And this guy entered the middle of the door and pointed to me his gun,” he said in the statement. “He started shooting around me. I raised my hands and said: ‘I am a cleaning lady. I am a cleaning lady.'”

Then Nelovic ran, he said in the statement. He found a closet and locked himself inside.

“I started to pray,” he said, while listening to the continuing shooting. “He shot the closet at the door, and I was so scared.”

While hiding in the closet, Nelovic said he sent a text message with his supervisor, but then fearful that any noise could give his position, his cell phone was removed. For two or three long hours, he said he sat in silence and prayed.

When the shots finally had dinner, Nlovic said he thought of Julia Hyman, the 27 -year -old associate at Rudin Management, whom she knew she was scheduled to be on her desk that night on the 33rd floor.

Later, on Monday night, Nlovic returned to his house in Queens and surrounded by his family, television turned on.

“I had to see what happened and why,” he said. “This is how I found out of Julia.”

Police said Hyman was the last person Kamura shot and killed before taking his life.

The researchers say they continue to seek a reason, but the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said that Tamura, a former high school soccer player, was trying to point to the headquarters of the National Football League, located in building 345 Park Ave., but took the wrong elevator and ended in the 33rd Rudin Management Office.

In a note found in Tamura’s pocket after the attack, the suspect said he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease linked to repeated blows in the head, often seen in veterans and military athletes, including soccer players, hockey players and boxers, the sources told ABC News. In the note, Tamura asked that his brain be studied, the sources said.

It is unknown if Tamura suffered from CTE, which cannot be diagnosed in a living person with certainty, although doctors can suspect depending on symptoms and a trauma history in the head.