UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot dead in Midtown Manhattan, masked gunman at large

originally posted by: Ohanka
Gonna be hard to work this case when everyone who has ever had the misfortune of being a customer of United Health is a suspect.

My sympathy is non-existent this dude deliberately ruined lives and let people die all to line his own pockets and those of the parasite shareholders.

If anything it was a merciful fate.

INSURANCE companies let people die.

PHARMACEUTICAL companies actually kill people.

There's a big difference.

a reply to: hangedman13

He was headed to another hotel where there was a conference concerning a merger between UnitedHealthcare and another big company.

a reply to: WeMustCare

PHARMACEUTICAL companies actually kill people.

We medical researchers only try to kill the people we don't like.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

It was a professional hit, the gunman had the inside information on where the guy was and what his schedule was. He used a particular bolt action WW2 era silenced pistol the Welrod. Brian Thompson had a meting with company execs and UHC was being investigated for inside trading among execs as well as for concerns about a faulty AI program that was denying claims to policy holders. He was scheduled to be questioned by the government as well.
A side note. UHC had a security breach by hackers and when it was ordered by the government to be audited, Nancy Pelosi on that same day bought options on the company that would late be assigned to investigate UHC.
No angry claimant or family member of a denied claimant. No ANTIFA. A professional hit to keep him silent.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

He didn't fumble with the weapon and it didn't jam, he operated it as it was designed to so he had experience using it. It was bolt action. The Welrod WW2 era silenced pistol. You have to manually open the bolt and eject the round but its whisper quiet the first few shots and quiet even after several shots.

a reply to: asabuvsobelow

His first shot was definitely a 'flyer'. I attributed this to drawing his firearm out of his coat and trying to fire simultaneously. He likely underestimated the suppressor. But his first shot was definitely way low; it may have even hit the pavement first and ricocheted into the victim's calf.

The dead giveaways were:

- Perp was definitely not worried about local people in the area ID'ing him. He used the suppressor to not announce the shot to people 1/4 mile away, such that they'd be looking for someone running.

- The perp continued to advance toward the victim after the first shot, and was basically standing over him for the final shot. Only then did he start to evade.

- The perp showed exactly zero emotion or bravado. His mission was to execute the victim. There was no 'Dirty Harry Moment', or other bravado...(i.e. "you killed my mother, you S.O.B!") Shooting him in the back had no meaning to the shooter; he just wanted him dead.

- The staged e-bike on the escape route. You know he had to stage it in advance because he couldn't take the chance one wouldn't be available. So, he likely rented it, moved it and then chained it up somewhere else to use in his escape.

- The unfired 9mm rounds left at the scene. He cycled (3) rounds through the slide and chamber just to confirm the firearm was clear. He knew exactly what he was doing. He also wasn't worried about fingerprints or his identity. Why?

a.) the Starbucks video clearly show his ungloved hands. Plus, he casually bought the water bottle which will be claimed to be the one found on his getaway path. Second, he bought a couple of power bars, probably because he figured he'd be spending some time escaping so might as well have some hi calorie, hi carb, food for energy.

b.) the water bottle dropped on his escape route. Probably lots of prints, but none of them his. A diversion.

c.) the found cellular phone. How convenient right? Probably a treasure trove of (mis)-information on that thing!

d.) his attire. Aside from the shooting, to anyone outside the shot radius he would have looked like a normal commuter/messenger in NYC. I'd put money on the fact he came out of Central Park looking like a homeless hippie or druggie...probably straight into a waiting vehicle to wisk him off to the nearest airport or shipping terminal.

e.) the crooked nose under the mask. A very clever diversion, and likely a disguise. His nose is clearly canted to the left of his face, an obvious identifying feature. You can bet this nose feature is at the top of the list for his description on wanted bulletins.

f.) the selection of Central Park as his exit route. Again, he wasn't worried about CCTV cameras ID'ing him, but the lack of cameras inside the park made for a great opportunity for him to change his looks, attire and mode of travel, and then exit the park with no attention.

g.) Intel - This person had to know where the victim was staying. Figuring out he'd be at the conference was a no-brainer, but knowing he was staying across the street, and what time he'd be walking across the street to the conference venue required outside intelligence. The victim was in the wrong place at the right time for the perp...the perp knew all of this in advance.

h.) the clear lack of care about the recovery of the 9mm shell casings from the scene. Not only does the perp not care about prints, he also doesn't care about ballistic forensics. That pistol has been broken down and discarded in pieces at numerous locations by now. It will never be found intact, or even in pieces which can be assembled to produce a firearm capable of withstanding ballistic forensics. Furthermore, the casings were allegedly marked with words such as "deny", "depose", and "defend". This was no random shooter.

All of these things clearly indicate this guy was a pro.

Even pros sometimes miss their first shot, but amateurs then run. He didn't run; he ruthlessly pursued his victim until he knew he had administered a fatal shot...then he fled.

Clearly

The media is now reporting that the gunman was at starbucks before the hit, and may have left some DNA?

That IS NOT the work of a professional.

Something weird with this case, for sure.

Wrote up before FCD post, I'll go back and read that. the above still strange.

originally posted by: Steinermath333
A dead ceo just means nothing of value was lost here.

No clue to what that means...lol

a reply to: chiefsmom

Clearly, the shooter is not worried about camera analytics, finger prints or DNA. What does this tell you?

After he exited Central Park, he was also on an express train out of country, regardless of mode.

The only thing the shooter cared about was not cluing in people beyond a few yards or so of he shooting, buying him enough time to leave the area. That is all.

People are discussing the jam in the firearm. This is common with suppressors, certainly 9mm suppressors, using sub-sonic ammo. The perp knew exactly what he was doing, and he clearly illustrated it by clearing not one, but three rounds through the firearm before firing again. He never even looked at the pistol while doing this, but at the same time he never took his eyes off of his victim. Clearing the 1st shot was clearing the jammed round. Clearing the 2nd round was to clear any fouled ammo behind it in the mag. Clearing the 3rd live round was just confirmation of an age old concept..."Two is one, and one is none"

He didn't care about the discarded live rounds. How do we know this? Because he didn't care about the fired rounds. The fired casings had far more forensic value than the un-fired ones. He knew this. Investigators will run all sorts of tests on the un-fired rounds looking for fingerprints and DNA from the person who loaded the magazines. With the expended cartridges, investigators will only be able to get forensics on the chamber, firing pin and possibly latent prints. The shooter cared about none of this.

(BTW...these points are what make the shooter one skeery individual!!)

Even worse, the shooter not only left expended and live cartridges at the scene, but he also left "branded" casings with a message on them. Not only did he not care if they were found, no, he actually WANTED them to be found.

This guy is a stone-cold killer. AND, he's got a message. Part of this message is a taunt that he can't be caught. The other part of his message is whomever his target group is are vulnerable even on the street.

At it's core, this is corporate terrorism.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Don't think the 'reply-er' does either.

I think I can see what he's getting at, but murder for hire is the wrong way to go about that change, Because then, all of society just becomes a bunch of outlaws acting our their own forms of justice.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The only devils advocate I can offer to the professional theory right now is that he was posing blank range and got one to the leg and one to the back (per reports, this may not be accurate as ongoing investigations don’t always share real time data). And it looked like he shot quite a few more rounds than that, implying he had a few miss… but I haven’t read an accurate count on how many shots were fired, and it does sound like some of the ejections were live rounds, so the video may be deceiving on number of shots.

I’m still leaning towards pro, because he seemed to have this really well planned.

It’s pretty hard for people to get their hands on a suppressor though. But someone with enough conviction and know how can certainly make one.

The confidence we see may just be the loss of caring, from someone with nothing to lose fueled by conviction.

Again though, I’m leaning pro as it’s not just the act, but the planning around it that makes it look like this wasn’t their first rodeo. It’s rare that amateurs can pull something off like this on their first run, even more rare they get away.

originally posted by: tamusan
a reply to: CriticalStinker

I don't care. I keep hearing he had two kids and was a loving father. Oh well, dude shouldn't have been running a company that f u c k s around with people's health for profit.

Agreed. While I feel bad for the kids as they are innocent on this, fck him and his wife . These corporate executives need to be called out for being the POS they are.

a reply to: Owlwatcher

I’m leaning toward pro, but I’m not completely sold.

The pro may have left “clues” as diversions, or it could have been sloppiness by a first timer.

Keep in mind, if internet sleuths can figure out details, it means that people can come up with these to begin with. Real suppressors are hard to get, but not if someone has the know how, and can make a very well functioning one for under $20.

As for those investigations and whatnot, that’s the price of doing business for a Fortune 500. I bet if you search any top 100 company name and investigation, you’ll find more with results in the past few years than not.

UHC is as scummy as they come, but they’re also the biggest which offers some security.

A pro doesn't go to starbucks before hand. A pro doesn't allow his face to be seen. A pro doesn't not wear gloves. A pro doesn't make sure to walk far enough so that he is in the sight of a camera that he would have scoped out prior if he was actually a pro. And a pro doesn't drop his bottle or phone or whatever else he dropped while running across the street and then getting on an electric bike.

They keep saying this is one of the busiest places in NY and noone was walking up or down either side of the street. We were meant to see this guy and this shooting for whatever reason. They went out of their way to make sure we did. Just like the 1st Trump shooter, making sure he was seen on several cameras and then doing a military crawl and making sure he pushed himself up a foot in the air each time he reached forward.

We are watching a movie. Multiple movies every day now. This is another one. The question is why.

Just 3 points that stand out to me so far…

BT was being investigated for insider trading.

Seems to be a professional hit.

Was the shot to his calf on purpose?

a reply to: awhispersecho

Sometimes life is chaotic, and there isn’t a reasonable answer.

Sometimes people are just unreasonable, or act out in passion against their character. I can’t say that’s what’s happening here, but not everything is happening under the puppet masters.

We can’t on one hand say that our government has been incompetent for the past four years while on the other attributing every weird thing on the planet to some master plan by them.

Quite a few people on the web think his murder was done by a disgruntled person or family member of someone who got shafted by this insurance.

My theory, until more information is released is that he paid a hitman to kill him.

Marriage failing with he and his estranged wife living separately, under multiple federal investigations. Makes the most sense to me.

My guess is to stop him from running.
Many people can take a body hit or even a headshot from a pistol round and keep running. A leg hit makes it so that he would be unable to run even with adrenaline.

A reply to: ByeByeAmericanPie

The guy didn't pull then push as he would have had to do with a Welrod, he pulls then releases. Also gas can be seen coming from the top/side of the gun indicating a semi-auto not a bolt-action since a bolt-action wouldn't release gas like that when firing.


a reply to: Owlwatcher

originally posted by: ByeByeAmericanPie
Just 3 points that stand out to me so far…

BT was being investigated for insider trading.

Seems to be a professional hit.

Was the shot to his calf on purpose?

If they dont find the shooter or if they find the shooter dead then we know it was a professional hit ,to close up any lose ends.

If the guy is arrested and charged then we know it was personal by either the wife,acquaintance, disgruntle employee, or disgruntle persone that was fcked by UHC