Empire State Building In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wein, and Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly-sought retail area. In
1997 Empire State Building shooting across the US, saying "It should be as difficult to get a gun in Florida as it is in New York City." 1997 Empire State Building shooting On February 23, 1997, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in Manhattan, New York City. The gunman killed one person and wounded six others before taking his own life with a gunshot to the head. Law enforcement officials ruled it was a premeditated attack after finding notes indicating Abu Kamal's anger over Palestine and Israel. At the time, Abu Kamal's