The gunman was not a trained assassin.
A professional killer would not have used a gun that would have jammed after every shot.
Someone more adept would also have stepped closer to the unsuspecting health insurance CEO Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel at 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. A trained killer would then have fired either a shot at his head or several closely grouped bullets into the middle of his back, in the center mass “kill zone.”
“Not a real pro,” a special forces operator said. “Just a willing assassin, which is rare these days.”
Other than his excessive distance from his target, the gunman certainly gave the impression of being more than your usual street shooter when he assumed a wide stance, calmly raised the gun in two gloved hands and fired the first shot.
But then the gun jammed.
Either by law enforcement or military training or simply by experience, the gunman knew exactly what to do. He immediately tapped the bottom of the magazine at the butt and pulled back the slide. The spent round fell to the sidewalk and the next bullet was jacked up into the chamber.
The gunman fired again only for the pistol to jam again. He tapped and pulled once more, but either that failed to clear the gun or his nerves had begun to fray. He repeated the motion and fired a third time.
He otherwise remained calm as he stepped away from his mortally-wounded target. He did not lose his cool and begin to run until he passed from the sidewalk to the street.
Racing down a passageway to the next block, he started to make more mistakes than expected from someone so focused on making a quick getaway that they had brought a silencer and face mask. Police believe he left behind a cellphone along with a water bottle he purchased earlier at a nearby Starbucks.
But he was able to make a getaway on an e-bike that he had parked on the next block. He had apparently equipped it with a battery, which he was seen carrying on surveillance video an hour earlier in the pre-dawn darkness.
Back at the post-shooting scene, NYPD crime scene investigators examined the spent shell casings and three unexpended rounds the gunman left behind. One of the spent rounds was inscribed with the word “DELAY.” A live round bore the word “DEPOSE.” Other words may have been on the two other spent rounds, but had been burned off when fired. Words might also have been on rounds still in the gun.
Whatever message, if any, the gunman intended to leave, he certainly had meant to fire the round marked “DEPOSE” but had not only because of the unprofessional jam.
The single words caused detectives to consider that the gunman may have intended a reference to a book titled DELAY, DENY, DEFEND - Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
Another theory that they’re weighing is the gunman may be somebody who holds a grudge against Thompson’s company because of a rejected claim, possibly one that led to the loss of a loved one. UnitedHealthcare is even worse than most insurance companies in this regard, turning pain into profit, grief into gold.
“We have one million suspects,” a detective said only partly in jest.
An expert in facial recognition told The Daily Beast that a surveillance photo from a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan may be enough to lead police to the man they believe to be a willing assassin. The charge will be the same as if he were a professional killer.
With Ben Sherwood
