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@nf3xn - I want to frame this discussion first. I fully respect your stance and disagreement and I think having this conversation is an important one, so I appreciate you engaging with me. I can absolutely be wrong and have room to be corrected.

With that!

We do not know the motive yet. You are correct.

I am positing that the motive is *likely* (again I could be wrong) to be political.

Here's how I reached that conclusion:
- The method of killing was planned and methodical. The Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of the killer indicate an understanding of the act, training, pre-operational intelligence gathering, and an accounting for escape.
- He knew the victim's movements and plans. He arrived at the location prior to the victim, waited for the victim to arrive, and hit the victim just as they were entering the building. He engaged in close combat, fired multiple rounds in an effort to kill, and then methodically escaped.
- He took effort to hide his identity. He wore nondescript clothes and a mask.
- His method of escape was a bicycle that has little identifying markings and can easily be stolen. That method of travel works very well in a large city like new york where it separates the killer from the victim and creates distance quickly. The bike can be tossed easily and the victim can move to get into a car or subway, or hide, etc once enough distance has been established.
- He left quickly and wasn't seen hanging around. This indicates that his escape path was planned (and perhaps practiced).
- He did not seek to rob the victim. The death was the purpose of the encounter.

Now. I don't know whether the person is a professional - meaning this is what they do for a living. Or whether it was an interested party that took the time to prepare. Either way though, the methods were the same.

So we've established that it was a "professional" or at least "skilled" killing. This indicates that it was not in the heat of a moment due to a disagreement, it wasn't a mugging due to lack of robbery, location, method, etc.

Ok.

Why do I think it's political.

It certainly COULD have been... say, his wife hiring a killer after finding out her husband had a love affair. But I don't imagine it would have been done so publicly.

In fact, the public nature points to it being a political act as well.

This was the CEO of a health insurance company meeting at an INVESTOR event.

In the current climate of the US as it relates to politics, economy, and healthcare, this CEO was a prime target for a politically motivated killing.

In traditional warfare, enemy combatants, soldiers, and generals are "valid" targets. (Valid here means serving to further the ends of a military goal).

In asymmetrical warfare, softer targets such as production plants, economic targets, critical infrastructure are "valid" targets (they cripple an enemy's ability to conduct violence down the line).

In political warfare (terrorism, revolutions, class warfare, etc), politicians and royalty are "valid" targets in that they are both decision makers and act as example killings.

When the local politics contain an element of corporate oligarchy (such as the US where monied corporate interested write actual laws and sway politics and economy through lobbying), CEOs become "valid" targets (again furthering the goal of a political movement engaging in violence).

So I certainly disagree with the idea that a CEO of a publicly traded company that determines the literal life and death of their clientele and the greater politic to be a "private" citizen. In many elements of warfare and political unrest - CEOs are fully "valid" targets (again, measuring this in a political science and threat assessment model).

So.... we don't know the motives as no one has claimed responsibility nor issued motives. no one has been caught yet, etc et al.

But based on the circumstances of the killing, the location, the background of the victim, and the TTPs of the killer, I feel quite assured in my assessment that this was a political assassination.

Time will tell.

(cc @krypt3ia

#NYC #United #UnitedHealth #UnitedHealthCare #CEO #NYC

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