mwplay888 Was Brian Thompson’s Killer a Hit Man? Unlikely, Experts Say.
Follow the latest updates on the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.mwplay888
For the general public, the shooting in Manhattan of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare on Wednesday seemed like something off Netflix: a coldblooded morning murder outside a hotel, a hooded man shooting a corporate bigwig from behind, the victim turning to face the attacker before crumpling to the ground, mortally wounded.
But beyond those images from a dark surveillance video, little is known about the shooting or the gunman. The police have not established a motive for the killing, and three days into their search they have not publicly named a suspect or made an arrest.
For those who professionally study criminal behavior, though, the shooting was packed with crucial information, with the killer’s every known move providing new opportunities to speculate about who he might be.
The police said the shooting was a targeted attack by someone with experience with firearms. But was that someone acting on a personal grudge — or a hired hand? And if the killer was a hit man, was he an amateur or a seasoned professional?
The consensus among experts following the killing of Brian Thompson, the veteran chief executive of one of the nation’s largest health insurers, was that the shooter could indeed handle himself around a gun, but that everything else suggested that he was unlikely to have been hired to commit the crime.
“Forgive me for saying too much on too little evidence, but it looks like the kind of guy that made up his mind that he was doing the right thing,” said David Shapiro, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and a former F.B.I. special agent. “He didn’t look like a guy that was fearful.”
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