NY - UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Midtown. #4

[MesquiteO21]

What do we make of the phone call minutes before the shooting? The most obvious answer seemed to be he was on the phone with an accomplice but LE seems to think at this point that’s not the case

Can you still check bus schedules via phone? Wonder if he was double checking what time a certain bus was leaving

Jmo

 

[snarast]

I think he went home, hoping in vain that he had somehow gotten away with this. I suspect he's been closely monitoring the coverage, so it wouldn't surprise me if he has since taken off.

I hope so, if he’s that slow on the uptake he’ll be caught in no time at all.

 

[wibbleflea]

I am behind the bus escape theory.
My question is where he might be now, still on a bus?. He is tired, hungry, thirsty and needs shelter from the weather. All this and might know there is a photo of him circulating. Where can he safely go or hide?

JMO

For what it’s worth, a few hours ago, a CNN update said ‘While this is happening, investigators are still searching for the suspect’s name. They believe he traveled to the city by bus and are in the process of ruling out a tip that the shooter left by plane.’

If the link takes you to the wrong place in the page, look for the section about the backpack being removed by an excavator. The quote is taken from the fourth paragraph there.

 

[armchairagatha]

Police Find Backpack in Central Park, a Possible Link to Gunman Who Killed C.E.O.

From the NYT live update page linked, bolding by me.

“We do not have his name,” Chief Kenny said of the suspect. But, he said, “at this point, we believe he acted alone.”

I happen to believe the same, which makes it even more interesting to me how accurate all of his timekeeping was, frankly. It's like he had inside information, but maybe it was just his own meticulous, dedicated research.

Curious how long this planned murder had been brewing, for sure.

No matter the eventual outcome, he pulled it off, seemingly against all odds.

I would take the he acted alone message to mean that he acted alone in executing this. Not that he was not potentially hired by someone else. I also think that even if he was hired he never directly interacted with that person or knew who they were or why they wanted BT killed. It was a crypto transaction arranged on the dark web with minimal info shared so as to protect the identity of the mastermind behind this. JMO

 

[schooling]

For what it’s worth, a few hours ago, a CNN update said ‘While this is happening, investigators are still searching for the suspect’s name. They believe he traveled to the city by bus and are in the process of ruling out a tip that the shooter left by plane.’

If the link takes you to the wrong place in the page, look for the section about the backpack being removed by an excavator. The quote is taken from the fourth paragraph there.

IMO they already have his name.

Or does anyone actually believe that this guy was able to take a bus from one of the fastest growing city’s on the planet and spend over a week in one the largest, busiest and most surveilled city’s on the planet without so much as leaving a trace of his identify or full face…..

This guy is dangerous and LE has his identity and doenst want him to know to prevent him from doing more dangerous things. And doesn’t want to release his name so armchair detectives don’t get hurt.

This is NYC. Manhattan. This is not the first masked shooting.

 

[JDG]

They don’t know where he is or they’d be knocking his door down.

 

[getthefax]

What do we make of the phone call minutes before the shooting? The most obvious answer seemed to be he was on the phone with an accomplice but LE seems to think at this point that’s not the case

Can you still check bus schedules via phone? Wonder if he was double checking what time a certain bus was leaving

Jmo

He may have called BT himself (I'm guessing he had that contact info), or even no one (feigning a call).

 

[azure]

The suicide discussion helped me get to the root of why this case is so interesting to me.

If you murder someone, especially in encroaching daylight in one of the most populous cities in the world, by definition it seems you have little to lose. You have to accept (and honestly expect) that you will be caught. As a result, many shooters under these circumstances would take their own lives or surrender on the scene. You have to imagine that he's let go of many of the ties that bind him to his daily life in order to commit this murder.

Yet his actions suggest someone with much to lose. He carefully concealed his face. He arrived in the city via one of the lease traceable methods in modern society. He seemed to carefully plan the shooting. He had the burner phone, the fake ID, he paid in cash.

So which is it? Did he honestly expect to get away with this crime (impossible, IMO). That thought seems so irrational, yet the execution was so methodical and rational-as much as a murder can be.

I find myself invested in knowing not just the why, but also the end game. If he thought he'd get away, how? And if he didn't care whether he got away, why go to such trouble to do so?

 

[getthefax]

I think he went home, hoping in vain that he had somehow gotten away with this. I suspect he's been closely monitoring the coverage, so it wouldn't surprise me if he has since taken off.

If he did, in fact, simply go home, he may have been one of the Peoples Action Institute protestors that picketed the company this past summer, and just took it to the next level... I'm sure LE have scoured those databases and are continuing to cross check. I still think he's out of the country, because while this is one helluva high profile murder, an international manhunt for a guy who killed one person is likely to begin to die down eventually if he can buy enough time.

UnitedHealthcare CEO murder comes amid insurance coverage controversies

 

[snarast]

The suicide discussion helped me get to the root of why this case is so interesting to me.

If you murder someone, especially in encroaching daylight in one of the most populous cities in the world, by definition it seems you have little to lose. You have to accept (and honestly expect) that you will be caught. As a result, many shooters under these circumstances would take their own lives or surrender on the scene. You have to imagine that he's let go of many of the ties that bind him to his daily life in order to commit this murder.

Yet his actions suggest someone with much to lose. He carefully concealed his face. He arrived in the city via one of the lease traceable methods in modern society. He seemed to carefully plan the shooting. He had the burner phone, the fake ID, he paid in cash.

So which is it? Did he honestly expect to get away with this crime (impossible, IMO). That thought seems so irrational, yet the execution was so methodical and rational-as much as a murder can be.

I find myself invested in knowing not just the why, but also the end game. If he thought he'd get away, how? And if he didn't care whether he got away, why go to such trouble to do so?

The hubris of youth and sociopathic fearlessness might make him invincible in his own eyes.

 

[caradana]

This case truly is the most fascinating I’ve seen in my WS years, and the reason has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve walked that exact spot 500+ times, I work in finance in NYC. Imagine if this case had gone down along your normal commute. That’s where I’m at.

If the shooter had been truly Jason Bourne about it: he had two weeks of prep. Imagine if he had dropped 50 identical backpacks full of randomness all over that area of CP. What this case is hammering home to me is strikingly similar to what 9/11 showed us all: we are all vulnerable. It’s not impossible to trigger a huge social effect. … SCARY

He left GWB PA Bus on a bus, no video of him exiting; … in all likelihood he crossed the GWB on a bus and crossed into Jersey … my table-stakes bet is that he either flew out of Stewart or he hit some megabus and took Route 80 out to Pennsylvania. He got out of here somehow. I am fascinated by this suspect and his unrushed nature; I don’t necessarily see a pro, but a great pro wouldn’t present himself so obviously. If he’s a pro, we are three days later and he’s unknown, so he’s a decent one. And my heart hurts for Thompson’s kids and for his family.

 

[armchairagatha]

The suicide discussion helped me get to the root of why this case is so interesting to me.

If you murder someone, especially in encroaching daylight in one of the most populous cities in the world, by definition it seems you have little to lose. You have to accept (and honestly expect) that you will be caught. As a result, many shooters under these circumstances would take their own lives or surrender on the scene. You have to imagine that he's let go of many of the ties that bind him to his daily life in order to commit this murder.

Yet his actions suggest someone with much to lose. He carefully concealed his face. He arrived in the city via one of the lease traceable methods in modern society. He seemed to carefully plan the shooting. He had the burner phone, the fake ID, he paid in cash.

So which is it? Did he honestly expect to get away with this crime (impossible, IMO). That thought seems so irrational, yet the execution was so methodical and rational-as much as a murder can be.

I find myself invested in knowing not just the why, but also the end game. If he thought he'd get away, how? And if he didn't care whether he got away, why go to such trouble to do so?

Well, he did get away didn’t he? Even if they eventually catch him, he got away unscathed from the crime scene. So I don’t think he wanted to die or be caught. He honestly thought he would get away for good and he almost did if it weren’t for those face photos from the hostel. Even now, it is far from certain he will be eventually caught.

 

[MesquiteO21]

He may have called BT himself (I'm guessing he had that contact info), or even no one (feigning a call).

I thought about feigning a call as well

 

[wibbleflea]

The suicide discussion helped me get to the root of why this case is so interesting to me.

If you murder someone, especially in encroaching daylight in one of the most populous cities in the world, by definition it seems you have little to lose. You have to accept (and honestly expect) that you will be caught. As a result, many shooters under these circumstances would take their own lives or surrender on the scene. You have to imagine that he's let go of many of the ties that bind him to his daily life in order to commit this murder.

Yet his actions suggest someone with much to lose. He carefully concealed his face. He arrived in the city via one of the lease traceable methods in modern society. He seemed to carefully plan the shooting. He had the burner phone, the fake ID, he paid in cash.

So which is it? Did he honestly expect to get away with this crime (impossible, IMO). That thought seems so irrational, yet the execution was so methodical and rational-as much as a murder can be.

I find myself invested in knowing not just the why, but also the end game. If he thought he'd get away, how? And if he didn't care whether he got away, why go to such trouble to do so?

Completely agreed. The enigma is in the inconsistency. Potentially leaves DNA evidence but hides his face for days. So much planning but discards his backpack, his burner phone and other items. Uses an unusual gun, wears standout items, chooses to kill in midtown Manhattan, in the presence of witnesses, on foot.

Perhaps he thought that the video from his check-in day would safely be gone by the time of the murder. The NYPD did well to trace him to the hostel so quickly, assuming that’s really the shooter.

 

[caradana]

Well, he did get away didn’t he? Even if they eventually catch him, he got away unscathed from the crime scene. So I don’t think he wanted to die or be caught. He honestly thought he would get away for good and he almost did if it weren’t for those face photos from the hostel. Even now, it is far from certain he will be eventually caught.

Great points. Projecting we will learn a lot by what DNA shows up on the Starbucks cup. Might take genetic genealogy a few days to identify a sociopathic twentysomething from vanilla America who had a close family member die after a coverage dispute, yes/no? Or the DNA might come from a totally different source. He had a very large backpack and a dozen plus days to plan. Science is our friend, let’s see what is revealed.

 

[comegetburnt]

It did dawn on me today that the suspect appears to have left the city with nothing but the clothes on his back. Not to say you couldn’t make it to GA in that condition, if that’s the actual destination, but it is a long way to go without a phone(?) or many/any possessions. Maybe not top concerns when you’re evading a murder charge that’s national news but leads me to think he didn’t go too far, at least initially. Whether that was to catch a plane, receive some assistance etc

 

[Arkay]

A part of me is wondering if the backpack is gonna be like Al Capones vault…I would have dropped that gun in a sewer or trash can vs. put it in a backpack and leave it in a park…

Shortly after the news was breaking on Anderson360 that the bag had been located, the panel of John Miller and several others naturally began expounding on what the contents could be and what may be learned about the killer.

One of the panelists, I can’t recall her name but I think she was a behavioral psychologist or something similar, cautioned the others that there was every chance that the suspect had left the bag with the intention of misdirecting the police. She warned that thus far he had seemed to think through each step, so they had to bear in mind the possibility that he dumped the gun elsewhere and loaded the bag with red herrings to point in a wrong direction.

I hope that’s not the case, of course. I hope when I wake tomorrow that the bag will be the goldmine and that the murderer is in custody.

Time will tell.

 

[Friday Fan]

Great points. Projecting we will learn a lot by what DNA shows up on the Starbucks cup. Might take genetic genealogy a few days to identify a sociopathic twentysomething from vanilla America who had a close family member die after a coverage dispute, yes/no? Or the DNA might come from a totally different source. He had a very large backpack and a dozen plus days to plan. Science is our friend, let’s see what is revealed.

Genetic genealogy can take years!

 

[caradana]

Completely agreed. The enigma is in the inconsistency. Potentially leaves DNA evidence but hides his face for days. So much planning but discards his backpack, his burner phone and other items. Uses an unusual gun, wears standout items, chooses to kill in midtown Manhattan, in the presence of witnesses, on foot.

Perhaps he thought that the video from his check-in day would safely be gone by the time of the murder. The NYPD did well to trace him to the hostel so quickly, assuming that’s really the shooter.

Perhaps he did! I see that though and the look - I see a man smiling for the cameras. There is a certain amount of swagger going on here, justifiably, as it turns out, because we are 72+ hours from this crime and this man rode, literally, through the center of the greatest city on the planet — and it’s the American public’s guess who he is.

 

[getthefax]

One of the panelists, I can’t recall her name but I think she was a behavioral psychologist or something similar, cautioned the others that there was every chance that the suspect had left the bag with the intention of misdirecting the police. She warned that thus far he had seemed to think through each step, so they had to bear in mind the possibility that he dumped the gun elsewhere and loaded the bag with red herrings to point in a wrong direction.

BBBM

Always appreciate your posts, Arkay.

I''ll be amazed if the gun is inside that backpack. The model gun used can be disassembled into many small pieces very quickly. I hope they've got it, but I will be gobsmacked if it's there.