A gunman wearing dark clothing and a mask covering his lower face ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan, where Thompson’s company was hosting a conference. New York police said the shooting was a “targeted attack” and that the shooter remained at large, but few other details were released. Surveillance video captured the moment the gunman calmly approached Thompson, pointed a pistol with a silencer, fired several shots and fled on an electric bicycle. Police are now combing through video footage to track him down, including at a nearby Starbucks that the shooter visited.

Many who took note of the details of the filming immediately had the question: Is this what a professional hit looks like in real life? The NYPD said nothing of the sort, but that didn’t stop speculation from surging online Wednesday. Dennis Kenney, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice with decades of experience studying professional murderers, had a unique perspective. He has spent a lot of time over the years dispelling myths about contract killings from movies and movies law and order episodes. He told me he found aspects of the attack strange and agreed to talk to me. But he stressed that it was still too early to draw definitive conclusions about a crime about which very little information has been released. Our conversation has been condensed and edited.

Slate: What were your first impressions when you heard the details of the shooting on Wednesday?

Dennis Kenney: The first thing that’s unusual is that the shooter apparently had a silencer. They’re not impossible to get, but they’re not readily available. Second, he appeared to have inside information about the victim’s whereabouts. He knew where and when to wait. The fact that he used the silencer didn’t make sense to me at first until I saw that the shooting happened around 6:30 in the morning. If it was a morning event, you generally wanted to have a weapon that made a lot of noise to scare off observers. But obviously no one was around at the time. It also suggested that the urgency of the shooting was important. Healthcare CEOs simply aren’t that hard to find in isolated environments. The fact that he chose to do it in midtown Manhattan was a bit unique.

The police spoke of a “brazen targeted attack”. They have studied contract killings and so-called contract killers and tried to dispel myths about this type of crime. What do you think about speculation that this was a hit?

I think it’s pretty unlikely. My understanding is that the CEO was under investigation for insider trading and other financial violations. The fact that he ran a healthcare company often leaves many angry people. So it seemed like someone who knew what he was doing, but the idea of ​​a professional assassin is pretty rare. So I think it’s more likely that it was someone with a special grudge who had access to inside information to know where and when he should be.

Are contract killings usually so dramatic?

A professional assassin would probably prefer to do something less public with limited attention. There’s just too much that can go wrong if you do it in the middle of the city center, so you probably prefer not to do it there in general. However, if it was time sensitive, that would make a difference. There are a number of killers, so it could be someone who was hired, but that’s unlikely.

Is there any other reason you think it’s unlikely?

This was obviously not the target’s usual routine. A professional would generally try to catch him as part of his regular routine in a location where the shooter has as little exposure as possible, so the risk of being caught or observed is quite low. In Manhattan, especially in Midtown, there are cameras everywhere. From what I understand, they got some pretty good shots of the guy’s face while he was in Starbucks or something close by. The danger was quite high and most professionals don’t like that risk. Again, unless it was time sensitive, there could be a number of reasons why it was important that it happened that day.

Has technology like surveillance cameras changed the way professional killers work?

That’s hard to know. Like most companies, there is a wide range of professionals. There are some that are much lower and others that are much more skilled and have better equipment. So I would guess that if this person were hired, they would be relatively on the lower end. Also, the fact that the video showed that the guy’s gun might be jammed is something that gives a professional some cause for concern. They make sure your equipment works.

What kind of crime would a very public shooting like this generally amount to? Does it fit a certain profile?

What impressed me was the fact that he knew where he would be and when he would be there. Generally, you can get this information by observing the person. You find their schedule and their routine and then catch them somewhere in their routine. This was obviously not a routine setting. So he had to have some reason to believe that he would come out of that door at an approximate time so that he could lie there and wait. This being Manhattan, standing around and waiting puts him at risk of being challenged by a passing cop or security guard, suggesting he had reason to know when the guy would come out. It suggests some kind of inside information.

What common misconceptions do people have about assassins? How do professionals differ from portrayals we often see in movies and television?

I don’t watch that many movies like that. Most of the highly trained people I know are assassins for government agencies or something like that. But if you look at even these levels of individuals, there have been several attempted assassinations of government officials in Washington given by other government officials, and generally the only reason they are known about is because they were botched. It’s a pretty difficult thing.

Do law enforcement authorities differentiate between professional murder and other types of murder?

For the most part, the investigation proceeds in the same way. If this was a professional, then it was obviously someone who had reason to want him dead. Because he ran an insurance company, you can see everything from people who were denied coverage and lost their spouse as a result. That would be something the police would be looking for. They will first look for the reason why he was killed. And once you find the reason, it’s much easier to find the person responsible It.

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