Judy Sirota Rosenthal for Yale University, courtesy of Patricia Carey

Yale alumna Wesley Mittman LePatner ’03, a senior executive at Blackstone, was among the four people killed when a gunman opened fire in the lobby of a Midtown Manhattan office building on Monday evening. She was 43.

Blackstone, an investment firm, has offices in the building at 345 Park Ave. Police identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, 27, a Las Vegas resident who later shot himself, and said he was carrying a note criticizing the National Football League, which is headquartered in the building.

During her undergraduate years at Yale, LePatner was a student in Calhoun College, renamed Grace Hopper in 2017, and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history. She met her husband, Evan Harris LePatner ’03, during their first day of their first year, according to a wedding announcement in the New York Times.

“The reason why one attends a place like Yale is to be surrounded by people like Wesley,” said C. Wallace DeWitt ’03, the secretary for the 2003 college class, who described LePatner as brilliant, kind and an “extraordinary classmate.”

LePatner was the head campus tour guide and a leader for the First-year Outdoor Orientation Trips, or FOOT, program. In a 2002 article in the News, she described the role of a Yale campus tour guide as “such a satisfying and rewarding job that many people would do it even if they did not get paid.” 

She was also a staff reporter at the News, covering stories on the addition of Hindi and Vietnamese course offerings and a disparity in institutional support for Native American students compared to other ethnic groups.

After college, LePatner remained connected to Yale as a significant donor. She was a member of the University’s “For Humanity” fundraising campaign committee and one of the Sterling Fellows, a group of Yale benefactors who have committed at least $1 million to the University.

LePatner served on the Yale University Library Council, a group composed of alumni and other Yale affiliates that supports the University’s library system.

LePatner and her husband are recognized with a plaque in the Linonia and Brothers, or L&B, reading room in Sterling Memorial Library. They were among the donors who backed the room’s renovation, according to a Yale Library article marking its reopening in April 2024.

“Wesley LePatner was a dedicated member of the Yale University Library Council and an inspiring, energetic, accomplished, and brilliant person with a passionate and longstanding love for Yale and its libraries,” Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian Barbara Rockenbach wrote in a statement to the News. “We will profoundly miss Wesley’s warm, dynamic presence.”

LePatner kept in touch with her fellow FOOT leader alumni.

“Evan and I currently live in Manhattan, and I work at Goldman Sachs where I have been since graduation. Although far from the hiking trail, I run into FOOTies in the hallway at work,” she wrote in a 2011 FOOT alumni newsletter.

At Goldman Sachs, LePatner served as managing director in the real estate investment group. She arrived at Blackstone in 2014 and became the chief executive officer of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in January.

“Words cannot express the devastation we feel,” read a statement from Blackstone. “She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond.”

She served on boards for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as for the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, a pluralistic Jewish school, and the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish organization.

“Wes’ bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her,” Uri Cohen, the executive director of the Slifka Center for Jewish Life, wrote in a Tuesday email addressed to the Slifka community but not sent to Jewish students. “She meant so much to many in the Slifka community as a leader and role model over many years.”

As a student, Cohen wrote, LePatner “enthusiastically brought friends together for Shabbat dinner regularly at Slifka.”

Sam Yebri ’03, a friend of LePatner’s, recalled those Shabbat dinners fondly. 

“We had fierce vigorous debates at the Slifka Center Shabbat dinners over whether LA or NY was the greatest city in the world,” he wrote on Instagram. 

In his message, Cohen also noted LePatner’s continued dedication to the Jewish community in New York and her commitment to passing her Judaism on to her two children.

Before attending Yale, LePatner graduated from the Horace Mann School, a private school in the Bronx.

Correction, July 29: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misstated the donation commitment required for membership in the Sterling Fellows group. It is $1 million, not $5 million.

Correction, July 30: This story has been corrected to reflect the preferred name of the class of 2003 secretary. He goes by C. Wallace DeWitt, not Charles.

Correction, July 30: This article previously misstated which floors Blackstone occupies at 345 Park Ave. It also inaccurately described LePatner’s tenure as CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust; she began that job in January 2025, not September 2014.