The man who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week planned out the murder to last excruciating detail, a former lieutenant commander of the NYPD has said.
The observation, aired by retired Lieutenant Joe Cardinale over the weekend, comes the manhunt for the masked assailant entered its sixth day Monday.
Speaking to Fox News, the veteran officer said the suspect has likely relished the attention he’s received in recent days, painting him as a smooth operator. However, he also described him as arrogant – something he said could be his undoing.
The shooting happened early Wednesday, and the suspect, described as a white man, was able to flee the scene unscathed.
As cops searched, many onlookers online chose to lambast the late CEO before he was even put to rest – as other painted his assassin as a folk hero.
The fanfare, indicative of greater frustrations with the American healthcare system at large, has likely served to ‘fascinate’ the gunman, Cardinale said – before pointing to what he painted as an already present ego.
Basing the characterization on 26 years of policing, it coincides with ones surrounding the notoriously shrewd Zodiac Killer, and those thought up by feds tasked with mapping out the minds of murderers as far back as the 70s.
Delusions of grandeur and intelligence are among the characteristics included in those rundown – something Cardinale said he saw in Thompson’s killer as well.
Citing the message seen scrawled in casings left behind at the scene that members of his old force have already likely indicates a motive, the ex-officer said he has seen this in the past – from criminals who feel like they are ‘smarter than the police.’
‘They want to commit the perfect crime, but they’re doing things to let them know that it is me,’ he said, pointing to the message painstakingly penned in Sharpie – ‘deny,’ ‘depose’ and ‘defend’.
‘I mean, him showing his face, he had to know that there was a camera there and he showed his face,’ Cardinale went on to add – mentioning another slip-up at an Upper West Side hostel before the murder, where the suspect had been staying.
Two stills of the suspect’s face – shrouded in part by a hood – were secured as a result, including one with him grinning widely at a female desk attendant at the Hi New York City on Amsterdam Ave.
‘Maybe it was just for that flirtatious moment that they discussed’, he said, though seemingly not convinced.
‘But I even said that’s somebody I would like to speak to – because she actually had a conversation with him, the clerk at the hostel.’
The clue is one of few that have been made public by the department, who, with the help of the FBI, have managed to trace the man in question’s arrival in New York – a bus from Atlanta, though there are several stops from which he could’ve boarded.
Officers were also able to map out the route he took immediately after – up Sixth Avenue on an e-bike through Central Park, where he ditched the conspicuous backpack he donned during the killing.
The bag was discovered by cops on Friday – another clue that has since been made public, as a picture continues to emerge of the suspect.
A senior law enforcement official described him as being ‘extremely camera savvy’, as all other images released by the department have his face obscured.
‘He’s not a professional, but he is calculated,’ added Cardinale, who left the force just two years ago, of of his own profile.
‘He obviously planned this out to a very good degree as well,’ he continued, as his old colleagues have confirmed the suspect arrived in Manhattan 10 days before the shooting before checking.
‘He planned his escape route, he planned everything prior to it,’ Cardinale said of this, before turning back to the subject of the suspect seemingly lowering his guard at the hostel, where he checked in with a fake ID and paid in cash.
‘I’m sure there are tips coming in because somebody, this man’s face, is on a nationwide platform right now through all the media,’ he said. ‘Somebody has got to recognize this individual.
‘And I think it’s going to be when he does get caught, he’s going to make it his moment in the sun,’ the former officer continued, again pointing to what he believes is hubris from the masked marauder.
‘He’s leaving these clues, he’s discarding it, he planned it from the beginning,’ Cardinale said.
On Thursday, authorities also released images of the shooter at a Starbucks blocks from the Midtown Hilton where the assassination would take place – these ones showing the man’s mask still up. He paid for a power bar and drink, again, with cash.
Within minutes, around 6:30am, the shooter would surface outside the hotel where Thompson had been set to speak at an investors meeting.
Seemingly aware of this – and lying in wait – the suspect was filmed shooting the father-of-two as he arrived outside.
Of this, Cardinale concluded, ‘I think [the suspect] had intimate knowledge of where Mr. Thompson would be at that hour.
‘Now, how did he get that knowledge?’ the retired investigator went on to ponder. ‘That is the big million-dollar question right now.
Moreover, aside from a motive, even things as simple as the murder weapon have yet to be solidified – with CCTV footage of the apparent assassination showing a pistol with what appeared to be a silencer attached.
Such a device is incredibly difficult for a member of the public to get their hands on, and possessing one without the proper credentials is a federal offense in its own right.
However, investigators are now looking into a theory the shooter used a veterinary gun used on farms and ranched to put down livestock – seemingly another setback in their investigation.
Worsening matters is the search for the bike the suspect use to flee – first said to be a CitiBike but now just an e-bike – has so fair yielded nothing.
This comes after Thompson, 50, was gunned down in one of the busiest, most surveilled neighborhoods in the country, and as the suspect continues to elude not only capture, but identification.
Another potential slip-up – a water bottle found near the scene authorities said may have been dropped by the CEO’s killer – failed to garner and useable prints, cops have said.
A motive has also yet to be confirmed – though the casings left behind and accounts given by Paulette Thompson, Thompsons widow, indicate it may have surrounded issues with insurance coverage.
The words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” is a phrase often used critics of the American healthcare industry – a sample set Cardinale says he believes the shooter is a part of.
Floating the idea the shooter – said to have escaped the day of the incident on an interstate bus – could be someone involved in a civil suit with UnitedHealthcare or at least connected to the oft-criticized company.
That would explain the careful, painstaking plan, Cardinale said – along with the slip-ups a seasoned assassin might not make.
When asked whether the NYPD knows the name of the yet-to-be located shooter, Cardinale said the public is on a need to know basis and that right now, there are certain elements of this case that must stay under wraps.
‘They’re giving as much as they can without compromising a case that once he is caught needs to move forward and get a conviction,’ he insisted, as the search has widened to the entire country.
‘So they can not, just for the sake of putting it out there to the public, blow their case before it’s even formed.’
As of Monday, no new leads on the suspects whereabouts have been announced. Police in Pennsylvania are now questioning a man about the slaying, NBC News reported.
The details of those talks – as is the case with much of the investigation – remain unknown.