NEW YORK (Reuters) -Blackstone employees struggled on Tuesday to come to terms with the death of Wesley LePatner, one of the investment firm's senior executives who was gunned down late on Monday as she was leaving her Midtown Manhattan office.

The 43-year-old mother of two tried to duck for cover behind a pillar in the lobby of 345 Park Avenue, the skyscraper office building that is home to Blackstone's roughly 2,000 New York-based staff, as a gunman sprayed bullets, people with knowledge of the shooting said. 

LePatner's death was at random. Neither she nor the firm, which invests more than $1.2 trillion in assets, was specifically targeted when 27-year-old Las Vegas resident Shane Tamura shot her and three others before killing himself, police told Blackstone executives.

"Beloved" was a word Blackstone executives and community leaders used to describe LePatner, a woman colleagues said had pushed into the rarefied circle of top Wall Street real estate executives traditionally dominated by men.

Blackstone President Jon Gray choked back tears describing her on a half-hour long global Zoom call Tuesday to tell the firm's 5,000 global staff of the gruesome event in New York, saying she was "one of the most beloved people at the firm."

She "worked so hard and cared so much," and had "presence, poise, and a level of care that was beyond measure," he said, according to people who listened to the call. On Monday evening, she was leaving work to meet a friend when the shooting began.

MENTOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

A Goldman Sachs alumna, she came to Wall Street after graduating with highest honors from Yale University, where she met her husband, Evan LePatner, on their first day at the school, friends said.

At Blackstone, one of the world's biggest private equity firms, she quickly rose through the ranks in its real estate business but was never too busy to offer advice, a kind word or to mentor younger colleagues, people who knew her said.

She was a senior managing director and global head of Core+ real estate and chief executive of BREIT, the investment firm's real estate fund aimed at retail investors, ranking as one of Blackstone's most senior female leaders.

As a philanthropist with deep roots in the Jewish community, LePatner sat on the executive committee of the UJA Federation New York and the Abraham Joshua Heschel School. She previously chaired the Women's Network at Blackstone, was also an elective trustee at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art and served on the board of the Yale University Library Council.

Real estate-focused investment firm Osso Capital's CEO Olivia John, who had previously worked with LePatner at Blackstone, said she was an advocate for women in the industry.

"She had a pure heart, was humble, and always wanted to do what was right," John posted on LinkedIn.

LePatner was known as an even-keeled, thoughtful and measured colleague who navigated Wall Street's investment cycles with a steady hand.

"She would smile through things and handle the challenging times with ease," said Christine Anderson, Blackstone's global head of corporate affairs and a friend of LePatner.

The UJA honored her with a leadership award in 2023 after she led a mission to Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. 

"Wesley was extraordinary in every way - personally, professionally, and philanthropically," the group said in a statement.

At the UJA awards ceremony, Blackstone's Gray called LePatner an "outsized force" and a "giant in the real estate industry," adding, "for those who know her, that may not be technically correct at 5 feet tall."

The LePatner family, in a statement, asked for privacy to mourn. 

"She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable. To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague," the statement said. "We will carry on the remarkable legacy Wesley created."