Chilling prediction about Brian Thompson assassin's identity amid fears of copycat killings

A former FBI chief has revealed he does not believe that Brian Thompson's assassin was a hitman but he was clearly a 'proficient' marksman.

Robert D'Amico said the UnitedHeathcare CEO's killer made some crucial errors which mark him out as an amateur, including a visiting a nearby Starbucks prior to the slaying.

Thompson, 50, was gunned down in the early hours of Wednesday as he was on his way to an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown.

The health insurance boss' wife Paulette, from whom he was separated, revealed he had recently been dealing with threats which referenced a 'lack of coverage'.

The shooter approached Thompson from behind and fired several shots using a handgun equipped with a silencer. He then fled the scene on an eBike and remains at large. 

D'Amico said the assassin likely shed the clothes he was filmed wearing shortly after the killing and may already have committed suicide. 

But the expert also speculated that the success of the execution and subsequent escape may have emboldened him into thinking that he can get away from the crime.

D'Amico told DailyMail.com he believes a 'suicide by cop' where the killer would deliberately provoke police to kill him if caught is unlikely. 

He said the tactic is more common among school shooters who want to go out in a blaze of glory and that Thompson's assassin has not displayed signs of egotism. 

D'Amico warned that the 'brazen' assassination could trigger copycat killings, as he speculated that it was the work of someone with a 'personal vendetta' against Thompson's company. 

The security expert reviewed footage of the killing and noted that while D'Amico's first shot was on target, his subsequent hits were more erratic.

'His first shot was well aimed,' D'Amico told DailyMail.com. 'The second one though, he somehow hits him in the leg. He took a longer shot than you would expect if it was professional.'

He pointed out that the although the shooter used a silencer, the weapon jammed after his first round. 

'You could say, "okay he used a suppressor" and he did recognize that the gun had jammed and  was able to deal with that but the gun was not tuned enough to function properly with the suppressor.

'A professional would have accounted for that. He did fix it quickly, so he I'd say he is proficient but not a "hit man", which, very few hit men actually exist and they tend to be ex-cops.'

The security consultant also pointed out that the killer was captured on surveillance footage at a nearby Starbucks prior to the murder, which he said a proper mercenary would never have allowed.

Instead, D'Amico posited that the killer had simply 'thought a lot' about their crime.

'You can see he isn't excited, he is calm,' D'Amico added. 'He doesn't even start running until he's half way across the street.'

D'Amico, who founded his security consultancy firm Sierra One, said it was surprising that Thompson was without any protection given the recent threats against him.

He warned that such threats will likely rise in the wake of the killing and that it could push others already contemplating such crimes into similar actions.

'Someone who was already thinking of doing something similar, this could put it on the forefront.

'But you are going to get a lot of threats. People are going to take what has happened here and use it as a way to scare people, "what happened to that CEO is going to happen to you".

'It could ramp up the scare factor and definitely increase threats and for someone already thinking about it, possibly trigger something.'

He urged other high net worth individuals to be vigilant about sharing their schedules online. 

UnitedHealthcare had put out an announcement about the investor conference without specifying a location.

But D'Amico said simple google searches would have been enough to yield enough information to allow the shooter to carry out the, 'brazen, targeted attack'.

'Even a layman can get on Google and then a more skilled person can find even more,' D'Amico said.

Footage of the horror shooting showed how the killer was lying in wait for Thompson and appeared to know which hotel entrance he was going to use. 

The NYPD announced a $10,000 reward to anyone with information regarding the shooting and released two images of the suspect who was seen at a Starbucks before the killing.

He is described as a white male wearing a cream-colored jacket, black face mask, black and white sneakers, and a grey backpack. 

The assassin was originally reported to have fled on a CitiBike, whose users are easy to track via phone and credit card data.

But cops now say the assassin was using a personal eBike, potentially making him much harder to find. 

On Thursday morning, the Kama Central Park Hostel in NYC was raided by NYPD cops, with the assassin believed to have spent the night before the execution there.  

Thompson was named UnitedHealthcare CEO in 2021 and earned a reported $10 million a year, and for several years prior, he ran the Medicare business within UnitedHealthcare. 

Just months before the slaying, the company's Minnesota headquarters were rocked by large protests against an alleged, 'epidemic' of claims denials, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Thompson had been separated from wife Paulette at the time of the shooting, with the former couple living in separate million dollar Minnesota mansions a mile apart.