NY - UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Midtown. #6

[JennieM]

I also don’t think he is a hitman. This is personal to him.

 

[Sadi]

I bet the shooter was from the hometown of the CEO. He knew he was going to be there and took a bus because he did not have the money to fly there. He was personally mad at him. Let's not forget that this seemed like a personal target, not a political target. Up close and personal death is personal.

I’m curious why you think the shooter is from MN?

 

[Tortoise]

FWIW.. November 2019

'Hyper-realistic' masks fool a fifth of people, say researchers

Con artists last year used a mask to impersonate a French minister and scam millions of euros.

news.sky.com

Image:The president of Japan's REAL-f Co. shows off a hyper-realistic mask
''Modern "hyper realistic" masks can be so convincing that people often can't distinguish them from a real face, say researchers.
The latest masks can cost around £1,000 and experts say they could be increasingly exploited by criminals as a disguise.''
"Failure to detect synthetic faces may have important implications for security and crime prevention as hyper-realistic masks may allow the key characteristics of a person's appearance to be incorrectly identified," said Dr Jet Sanders.''

Seeing the photo of him inside the taxi, with the positions of his irises, I think his eyes are real.

Two new photos of suspected assassin accused of shooting CEO dead in street

 

[JennieM]

Seeing the photo of him inside the taxi, with the positions of his irises, I think his eyes are real.

View attachment 550315
Two new photos of suspected assassin accused of shooting CEO dead in street

Is he wearing a black mask under the white one?

 

[KaylynnCouture]

Is he wearing a black mask under the white one?

Yes it looks double masked to me.

 

[Inthedetails]

That was an entirely different scenario, though. Hijacking multiple planes requires multiple people by definition and the planning and funding of it cannot be done by just the hijackers themselves.

Walking up behind someone and shooting them in the back and then riding away on a bike requires no one else to be involved. That's not to say there wasn't anyone else involved but there doesn't need to be.

Olaf Palme in Sweden was shot just in that manner in 1986 and there was never really any suggestion that anyone other than the shooter was involved. Or at least there is very little evidence for it.

A foreign state actor seems unlikely because if you have the funds of a state behind you then you get a gun that works as a basic starting point. If it was some non-state terrorist group then I think they'd have claimed it by now.

I think it shows that big, powerful entities can be toppled with simple devices and very good planning.

I haven't ruled out anyone behind that idea, whether it's lone wolf, American ideologue(s), or foreign players, though I realize others have settled on their theory.

jmo

 

[CityKid]

If you compare the backpack in the two photos, the one on the bike looks much more boxy with the contents, top and bottom. Yet he may have even be carrying an ebike battery with him during the shooting, so if that is the case, it should be fuller before not after.

I'm wondering if he bought two identical backpacks, one clean one (no DNA) to leave in the park to be found, and the other dumped in a dumpster or trash cart which police wouldn't be looking for.

Did he change coats too in the bike photo? Is it a longer coat? His arm looks well padded to me. The taxi photo coat looks like a different coat to the one in the shooting.

View attachment 550283
New photos show masked suspect gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO and fleeing on bike

Maybe the puffer coat from the taxi pictures was stuffed in the backpack.

 

[Marantz4250b]

Do you think it wasn't properly fitted because he might have been rushed in those last few minutes?

Possibly. It's difficult to say without knowing how it attached to the gun.

I'm still of the opinion that it wasn't properly fitted because the design was wrong rather than it not being correctly fitted as it was intended to be. Semi-auto pistols have been around for 120+ years and very few were ever designed to accept sound moderators.

In the USA pistols with moderators are a fairly new concept for civilian sale as the moderator is an NFA weapon and must be registered with ATF and a $200 tax needs to be paid each time they are transferred. American gun companies have only started manufacturing any types of firearms to take them very recently. That being the case, it's likely that whatever he used had been modified to take the mod rather than manufactured for it.

Now, that might be as simple as a barrel swap but it's impossible to say until we know what the gun was.

 

[Tortoise]

Dec 9, 2024
BRIAN Thompson's assassin planned to throw the Monopoly money found in his backpack over the CEO's body, a forensic psychiatrist has claimed.

That was the first thought I had when they released the information about the Monopoly money. Not that I think it's possible to claim to know that's what he intended to do, or to know he had it in his backpack at the time of the shooting.

 

[Janitor101]

He probably charged the battery elsewhere (hostel?), and then was taking the battery to be put on his bike. We don’t have much details AFAIK on when he was carrying the battery and where.

It makes you wonder where he stashed the ebike until he had acquired a battery.

 

[NoSpoonFeeding]

The B&T pistol isn't semi-automatic, it's bolt-action, and needs to be manually cycled with each round.

I am not the firearm expect that was quoted in the article and until LE has or releases more information, nothing shoud be taken as a fact.
Have you watched the video? It doesn't appear to be a semi-automatic, it seems to be a single shot and he manually cycled each round.There are many opinions on the internet, most agree with this expert, but not always on the exact model. I've not seen many claiming that it was a semi-automatic with a silencer, which would not have been as quiet as the pistol that the expert thinks was used.
MOO

 

[GMG1999]

I'm still on the theory that BT set up the murder himself. I think he was on the phone with the hitman as he was walking out "I'm walking out this door with a bright blue blazer on." I honestly have a lot of respect for the resources the NYPD and the FBI have, and to have this guy vanish without anyone knowing who or where he is is quite baffling. I think he must really be a professional hitman. This was a very thought out plan -- not an emotional, revenge filled guy.

So let's say he set it set it up, why go to NY for 10 days in advance? If BT set it up, why not just set it up in MN? Why would he set up his own murder?

 

[Marantz4250b]

I bet the shooter was from the hometown of the CEO. He knew he was going to be there and took a bus because he did not have the money to fly there. He was personally mad at him. Let's not forget that this seemed like a personal target, not a political target. Up close and personal death is personal.

You can't fly anonymously, though. That is more likely why he took a bus.

 

[NuttMegg]

Early on in the case I wondered this very same thing. Although his photo was most probably plastered on the UHC website, the photo could have been old and as we know, people age and change over time which would make it more difficult for a perp to positively identify the victim as quickly as he did on a dark street.

More and more, I'm beginning to think the perp had at least one accomplice. Someone posted inside the building who called the perp on his burner phone to alert him as to what the victim was wearing, and what exit door he was using.

Maybe something has been posted to the contrary, but if I had been the assassin I would have checked out BT on Tuesday. Very stocky guy, mid western face, bright blue blazer, not a business blue, more a golf club blue, to my eyes. Murderer probably thought he'd been pretty lucky to see his target was dressed like that. Also, I get it that Wed. was the 1st day of mtg, is there any proof bt didn't visit the mtg room on Tuesday?

 

[KaylynnCouture]

You can't fly anonymously, though. That is more likely why he took a bus.

You also can’t fly with a firearm.

 

[CityKid]

It was reported early on that he was seen near the Frederick Douglass Houses at approx 5 am with the bike battery. That’s 2.9 miles away from the HI Hostel. The newer timelines I’ve seen say he left the hostel around 5:30 am. He was spotted near the Hilton at 5:41, so it is assumed he used the bike to get there. Either he left the hostel much earlier that day, or the Frederick Douglass siting was on a different day.

The FD houses are really close to the hostel (FD houses go from 100-104 on Columbus, and the hostel is at 104 and Amsterdam). You can walk it in about 10 minutes.

 

[Inthedetails]

Dec 9, 2024
BRIAN Thompson's assassin planned to throw the Monopoly money found in his backpack over the CEO's body, a forensic psychiatrist has claimed.

I thought about that, but the logistics seems clumsy. Wasn't there other stuff in the backpack besides the money? One hand holding a gun makes rifling through a backpack awkward, though there were side pockets in the backpack. Maybe he meant to put the money in his pocket for easy access but forgot?

I do think throwing money at the victim makes sense, but I'm not entirely sold that was the plan, tbh. But, maybe in the moment he forgot or taking a few seconds to grab the money seemed too risky so he fled faster than he expected to.

jmo

 

[LordNikkon]

I think its strange how the CEO had no security. None.

 

[krikken]

I also don’t think he is a hitman. This is personal to him.

If someone was looking for a hitman for some other crime, mightn't they want to look up a guy with exactly this kind of M.O. and profile?

 

[Marantz4250b]

Have you watched the video? It doesn't appear to be a semi-automatic, it seems to be a single shot and he manually cycled each round.There are many opinions on the internet, most agree with this expert, but not always on the exact model. I've not seen many claiming that it was a semi-automatic with a silencer, which would not have been as quiet as the pistol that the expert thinks was used.
MOO

I can't find the specific video but there is one with the pistol zoomed in on and gas escapes from the ejection port and the slide moves. Those are definitely facts.

Ian McCollum (AKA Gun Jesus) is a very highly regarded firearms expert who has shot those guns and he agrees that it isn't one.