‘The wind of the cannonball blinds.’ –Flaubert
A gunman dressed in dark clothing and wearing a mask over his lower face ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan […]
The first thing that’s unusual is that the shooter appeared to have a silencer. They’re not impossible to get, but they’re not readily available. The second thing is that he appeared to have inside information on the victim’s location. He knew where to wait and when to wait.
The fact that he used the silencer didn’t make sense to me at first, until I saw that the shooting took place at about 6:30 in the morning. Generally, if it was a midmorning sort of thing, you’d want a gun that made a lot of noise to scare observers off. But obviously at that time, no one was around. It also suggested that the urgency of the shooting was important. CEOs of health care companies are just not that hard to find in isolated settings. So the fact that he chose to do it in midtown Manhattan was a little bit unique. […]
A professional hit man would probably prefer to do something less public with limited exposure. Doing it in the middle of midtown—there’s just too many things that can go wrong […] However, if it was time sensitive, then that would make a difference. […]
This obviously was not the target’s usual routine. A professional would generally try to catch him in his regular routine in a place where the exposure of the shooter is minimized so that the risk of being caught or observed is pretty low. Manhattan, particularly in midtown, you’ve got cameras everywhere. […]
I would guess this person, if they’re hired, they would be relatively on the low end. The fact that it appeared in the video that the guy’s gun might have jammed is also a little bit of a concern for a professional. You make sure your equipment works. […]
Generally, you get that information by observing the individual. You find their schedule and their routine, and then you intercept them somewhere along the line on their routine. This was obviously not a routine setting. […] It suggests some sort of inside information. […]
I would think more likely it was somebody with a particular grudge that had access to inside information to know where to be and when to be there.
{ Interview with Dennis Kenney, professor of Criminal Justice | Slate | Continue reading }
