Long post ahead, and it’s just my ramblings… but wanted to put them down here (for the exercise):
I think it is going to take a minute to find this guy. I think he’s basically a bold serial killer who essentially found his dream “job” in killing someone in a sort of organized terror-ish attack. He looks relaxed, charming… and we watched him behave calmly, smoothly, and without hesitation or any major screw ups. His plan worked.
United Healthcare experienced a
ransomware attack in February, 2024, wherein hackers seized United Healthcare servers, and for which the company paid $22million in bitcoin to have released. That money goes into the ether—and it would sure buy a whole lot of pistols.
To my eye, this was a very well planned/organized attack where the shooter was able to identify a lot of loopholes and windows of opportunity and exploit them. He is very intelligent. He selected a target, probably planned meticulously for weeks or months, arriving in NYC weeks early. He then had to acquire an e-bike, and needed a place to store it, so he chose a hostel… both because he wanted to blend in, but also because he could store that bike he would soon need.
The weapon he used was a very expensive ($5700!) specialty gun used to dispatch sick/wounded animals. I do not believe it’s a coincidence that a weapon for the “sick/wounded animal” was used to kill the United Healthcare CEO —
it has the hallmark of a taunt (which we saw echoed in the writing on the bullets).
Here’s a write up on the gun:
VP9 Suppressed Pistol from B&T: The Silent Helper – Small Arms Defense Journal
The article above shows a photo (attached) of how the gun breaks down into many component parts (useful for traveling), and that can be tossed into trash, bit by bit over time, undetected and therefore lost forever.
It also describes the handling of the gun, and helped me understand why the shooter’s two handed grip seemed slightly unusual, especially as he cycled the spent casings and extra unspent rounds.
My wild guess is this guy has money and well-funded backers, is part of a larger anarchist/anticapitalist network that has tentacles overseas expressly so they can commit crimes. I believe he is long gone out of the US.
IMO the killer is very smart, tech savvy, spoiled, and possibly an anarchist/anti capitalist fundamentalist sort (would also tie in with & explain the bus, train, hostel and electric bike mode of transport). He might be vegan. I know—I’ve really gone off on my analysis here!
I hope I am dead wrong, but this is my feeling about the case and why. It has a bit of a “new world order” kind of feel to it, IMO. A very different crime, and yes, my ideas are indeed very cinematic. But here we are.
Bookmarking this post so I can find it and eat my words in the future.
