A New York City police officer and three other people were killed in a shooting in Midtown Manhattan on Monday evening, police confirmed at a late-night news conference.

The last killing of such a scale in the city was during a fast-food restaurant robbery in Queens in 2000. Mass murders of strangers are rare.

A man stalked through a Manhattan office tower firing a rifle Monday, killing four people, including a New York City police officer, and wounding a fifth before taking his own life, officials said. The shooting took place at a skyscraper that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone,