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

[Marantz4250b]

What if it weren't a kill. He could be in hosp. Gruesomely wounded for life.

Agreed. The theory that he staged this himself is a non-starter, I think.

 

[MissPie]

Er, pls don't throw rocks at an elderly (but spry) lady, what is an e bike and how are they so easy to access at a moments notice in busy nyc?

Ppl reaĺly carry batteries around? How large?

From one elderly but spry lady to another: an e-bike is an electric bike. It runs off a rechargeable lithium battery. The battery periodically needs to be plugged into an outlet to recharge. You can choose to pedal like a regular bike or get a boost of energy from the battery to make it go faster with less effort. The battery would typically fit in a backpack (mine does).

 

[NuttMegg]

I’m not sure what you mean? I may need more coffee

Well what if he arranged for his own shooting death, and something went wrong, he being. grievously injured but not killed? Which is why I don't consider it likely that bt arranged his own assassination.

 

[Inthedetails]

Er, pls don't throw rocks at an elderly (but spry) lady, what is an e bike and how are they so easy to access at a moments notice in busy nyc?

Ppl reaĺly carry batteries around? How large?

Yes, they are easy to access. The city is full of ebikes. Besides use for recreation and commuting, there is a huge delivery-service industry with many, many people zooming around on ebikes. Ordering lunch today? It will likely be delivered by someone on an ebike.

jmopinion

 

[eddie_van]

Well what if he arranged for his own shooting death, and something went wrong, he being. grievously injured but not killed? Which is why I don't consider it likely that bt arranged his own assassination.

of course it's ridiculous and wrong; this is the kind of theory people come up with because they're bored waiting for updates

 

[NoSpoonFeeding]

How many bullets would he have had without reloading? Did he empty the gun?

We couldn't possibly know, unk number of bullets in a magazine? Gun make and model not known, speculation only.

 

[RobSA]

Hitman may be from outside the US. Chance to go visit NYC for a bit because he knew as soon as he did his hit job, he would have to bolt ASAP. BT set it up because he knew he was being investigated for insider trading. He had cashed in millions of $$. Afraid his boys would be left with nothing if government siezed the money. Plus he did not want to go to jail again (DUI years ago). Plus he did not want the shame of his boys knowing he did something illegal. He was hoping he could set it up that it looked like someone disgruntled with the insurance industry. And did not want to do it in Minnesota where he knew his wife and sons would be too close, possibly end up having to show up at crime scene. NYC gave him a buffer of them not seeing crime scene as well as no one they knew would be involved in crime scene: paramedics, police officers, etc. I think he hired someone from out of the country, which is why no one seems to know who this guy. Even his fingerprints and DNA have not been found in police database. Hitman casually went to Starbucks right before hit. Not concerned at all about missing BT. BT put on a bright blue jacket that morning. I think he called hitman and said "Okay, I'm walking out of hotel in five minutes with bright blue jacket on." I believe BT walked out of hotel and shooter came from BEHIND and shot him. He didn't see this guy from the front. He KNEW this was the guy without seeing his face. It was the jacket. No one would know what BT was wearing that morning except for BT. Hitman literally got to the hiding spot by the SUV five minutes before BT walked out the door. BT did not have an overcoat. No laptop bag. No briefcase. BT knew he did not need those that morning. A 50 year old CEO does not go to an out of town conference without a laptop. Period.

Less than one percent chance.

 

[nodamselindistress]

OMG at the ASSUMPTIONS some posters are making!!!

Just a reminder, but what has been released is likely a very small amount of info that LE has. Just because UHC or the family has not offered a reward does not necessarily mean anything, LE could have told them NOT TO OFFER.

Just hoping they have this guy in the crosshairs and arrest is coming soon so all this can stop!

Surprised I have not read a theory that the wife and the shooter are lovers and he killed BT for her!

 

[Marantz4250b]

How many bullets would he have had without reloading? Did he empty the gun?

Impossible to say without knowing what the gun was. 9mm pistols have magazine capacities from seven or eight rounds to eighteen or thereabouts. That appears to be a pretty large gun so I'd guess it's a larger capacity one. Until it's found, though, we won't know. I'd suspect that it's somewhere in CP, probably underwater.

I'm hearing that he fired two or three rounds. Maybe that was all he had in the gun? Three unfired rounds were found on the street. I think he dropped those rather than cycling them through the gun.

 

[Periwinkl3]

Maybe he doesn't care if he's caught.

jmo

Possibly. But in that case, he could have dropped the gun and put his hands up right after the shooting.

I don't think we would have seen the Monopoly money in the backpack, either. Unless someone else is trolling LE, which I doubt.

 

[BOBON]

To my eye he knows NYC and the US too well to be from another country

 

[Curiousobserver]

Also remember that LE has the full video where the snapshots they have shown us come from. The Cab video may include the whole trip, multiple better views, and possibly a sampling of his voice as well, chit chat etc...

 

[Marantz4250b]

Maybe, maybe not. With a bike it could be different because there aren’t hundreds of thousands made. But the idea of there being a huge log of serial numbers somewhere is not really realistic.

It seems pretty realistic to me. If it was stolen, for instance, the original owner may have registered the warranty?

 

[Inthedetails]

Possibly. But in that case, he could have dropped the gun and put his hands up right after the shooting.

I don't think we would have seen the Monopoly money in the backpack, either. Unless someone else is trolling LE, which I doubt.

Punking the cops is likely part of his fun.

He's not the folk hero if he gives up on the scene. Americans have seen that routine for countless school shootings and it no longer is exciting to the viewing audience. Ho hum.

I have more cynical ideas than that about being caught, but that's one.

jmo

 

[eddie_van]

To my eye he knows NYC and the US too well to be from another country

I agree. And I definitely don't think he fled the country. He's just waiting in his home hoping that nobody will figure out who he is.

 

[Inthedetails]

To my eye he knows NYC and the US too well to be from another country

Many people from other countries are very familiar with NYC - maybe even more so than most Americans who live outside of NYC.

He knew NYC takes cash in transactions, for example, and I've seen several posts on WS by Americans assuming he would pay for things with a credit card because that's how it's done in their location. He knew cash would be accepted in NYC.

jmo

 

[x_files]

Well, they are known for not paying out...

That's a fact—a brief moment of levity in an otherwise dark hour.

 

[Marantz4250b]

I agree. And I definitely don't think he fled the country. He's just waiting in his home hoping that nobody will figure out who he is.

I agree. He's not foreign born, or if he is he has close ties to the US and most probably lives there and has done so for some time.

 

[fridaybaker]

Agreed.
The only way it would not be strange was if he rarely took security.

Was he planning on meeting with someone at a hotel nearby that morning? and did NOT want security to know about it. An affair? Meeting up with someone on a dating/hook-up app like Tinder/Grinder? Especially if he thought he could be fired for having an affair or dating a young man?
If he was seeing someone would the LE inform the public? What if this is a hook-up that went wrong?

Has anyone discussed this angle yet? Jealous lover's boyfriend? An escort's boyfriend?

We heard early on that many folks don’t like to have constant security and often decline or ditch it.
He was walking a few blocks early in the morning. I have no doubt he just didn’t feel he needed it for that short period of time.

 

[m00c0w]

Maybe, maybe not. With a bike it could be different because there aren’t hundreds of thousands made. But the idea of there being a huge log of serial numbers somewhere is not really realistic.

The manufacturer almost certainly has a record of bikes they made, including serial number and the distributor it was originally shipped to.

Speculating about how something is a dead-end lead without actually knowing what the lead would yield would be extremely poor police work. It could be a crappy bike they stole somewhere. It could be a bike they can find a sales history on. Police won’t know until they know.

JMO