a strange conjecture?

being paid to do it doesn't really fit that fuzzy version of revenge

What about that guy's revenge motivation?

I don't really think of either of them as heroes in any sense, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been expecting something like this to happen for some time now.

the victim was definitely a villian.

At best, I finder the shooter's actions understandable (acknowledging that I am making assumptions about motive here).

But the victim was a willing participant in the process of extracting wealth from suffering people and enriching himself to the tune of 8 figures a year.

Because he failed the first time or there was some malfunction with the shooting. And he unmasked himself… imo a pro would never do that. Also, I don’t think they usually write things on bullets. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not in the loop with all of this stuff.

For one thing, he's a KID. I'm thinking a parent or other loved one denied care. But we'll see.

I've wondered from the beginning if he was a hired assassin.

I don't know anything about guns, so that's interesting.

To me, the motive is not necessarily clear. It could be retaliation for health insurance denials, or it could be made to look that way.

Unless he is a dumbass.

Up through so-called 6 1/2 Avenue and into Central Park. He is then seen on camera coming out of Central Park between 70th and 80th on the bike and then again on 85th street. When he leaves Central Park, the backpack is gone. Police are still searching the park for the backpack.

One other thing to note: between the hostel he stayed in and the B D train station at 103rd street are the (at one time notorious) Frederick Douglass houses, a sprawling housing project that he would have pretty much had to walk through either on 104th street or 103rd street to get to the subway. It used to be quite an interesting walk at 5am to be trapsing through the FDH on 103rd street, which pretty much bisects the grounds. Not sure if it's the same these days, but I'd certainly feel better about making that walk armed!

Apparently he came by bus and stayed in hostel sharing room with other people. I don't think it's a contract killing, or he doesn't get a lot of contracts.

It’s the 2019 version of this:

https://www.peakdesign.com/products/everyday-backpack?Size=20L&Color=Ash

Sure it could be a gift, second hand or stollen but it wasn’t cheap new and very identifiable.

Source: I was just pricing one for a .22 rifle two weeks ago. The ATF has recently upgraded their review process and months long waits have largely gone away.

... but there is the thorny issue of the background check and sign-off by the ranking law enforcement officer -- county sheriff or city chief of police -- in your home location. If he had a clean record, that would be possible, but the paper trail would certainly lead law enforcement to him eventually. How many people do you think buy those pistols?

The speculation about the $2000 WWII replica pistol is just that: speculation. What you saw on those videos was him clearing jams, not racking the manual action of an archaic firearm. The evidence is the complete cartridges found on the ground. That's what happens when you clear a jam: a live cartridge almost invariably gets ejected, whether it was the initial cause of the jam or just collateral ejecta from clearing the jam of a spent casing. The bottom line is that you don't eject live cartridges when you cycle a manual action.

What you saw was a garden variety semi-auto pistol with a silencer that was either homemade or sourced on the black market. The jams were probably caused by the silencer, which causes back-pressure that can affect the often-finicky functioning of a semi-auto pistol. The pistol can be tuned to compensate for that, but his clearly wasn't. Pro? No.

It was a glock or similar with floating barrel attached to a threaded on silencer. The frequent jams are common in that configuration unless the main recoil spring is replaced with a much harder spring.

A professional wouldn't have had that many jams - he would've tested and refined the weapon.

https://apnews.com/article/unitedhealthcare-ceo-manhattan-shooting-death-7f6581ba6b0b520938d82c361e77a83c?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

The gunman left unfired bullets on the ground. That's a jam from a semi-auto. A welrod type gun is bolt action, so only a spent casing would be ejected.

He may have had to pull the slide back to reset for the next shot, ejecting an unfired cartridge each time.

If you are trying to minimize noise, subsonic rounds lack the crack of most ammunition. A suppressor + lower powered subsonic ammo often lack the power to properly cycle the gun causing the need to manually rack the slide between shots.

That power deficiency can be overcome by using a weaker recoil spring. Proper functioning of a semi-auto pistol is dependent on a balance between the power of the cartridge and the strength of the spring. Springs can be changed easily. The fact that he didn't tune his pistol to his silencer suggests that he wasn't a pro at all.

the carnage to the person he was targeting (unlike other terrorists who kill everyone in the vicinity).

I don't think he personally knows anyone killed by UHC. He's just a homegrown domestic terrorist / serial killer, for lack of a better word, and his target appears to be heartless CEOs. He probably did not expect to still be alive right now, but now that he's escaped, he might move on to the next person on his list.

There are a lot of other wild theories I can think of, but I think the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

but in different homes.

It's part of the tranche of photos.

He and his wife are separated and living apart. Another avenue to pursue.

...but maybe the shooter is ex-military, maybe Special Forces? Someone with knowledge of guerrilla warfare?