Preternatural Calmness of Assassin Who Shot Brian Thompson
Video footage of the shooting released.
During the Allied amphibious assault of the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, army psychologists observed the behavior of soldiers as they entered combat. Of special interest were the green soldiers who’d never been in combat before. Not only were they ineffective at killing the enemy; many of them never even fired their weapons. They contrasted with General Rommel’s soldiers who were defending the beaches, many of whom had already experienced years of combat. The defenders had long since gotten used to shooting people.
As an aside, I’ve often thought it would take a special kind of psychopath to send green soldiers onto a wide beach without at least trying to get armored vehicles onto the beach first so that the poor devils could at least have some cover. It seems to me that any normal person who has ever seen and heard a German MG 42 machine gun in action would find it impossible to send young soldiers into it.
The gunman who shot United Health CEO Brian Thompson is apparently accustomed to shooting people. In the video footage, he seems preternaturally calm, collected, and deliberate. Note especially how he walks towards the man he has just shot in the back to fire a few final shots at closer range. He has a strangely unhurried and casual gait, and he never looks back to see if anyone might be closing in from behind.
He strikes me as extremely confident that no one is around to intervene and that he will have no problem escaping.
It was a hit. The shooter was a pro. The only thing he took down was the intended target. His egress route and method was planned. I heard someone speculate he had a change of clothes in the backpack. From the way it looked I’d say that’s a good guess. What’s sad is his family will never look at the holidays the same way again.
He collected his spent shell casings. The weapon didn’t jam, it’s a straight pull. So you don’t eject any evidence into the street. If I was investigating this, I’d be all into what the victim was privy to, what did he know that got him shot, that will lead you to the killer, or their handlers quicker.