Скачать или смотреть Internet sleuths race to identify suspect in healthcare CEO shooting

Amateur internet sleuths are racing to identify the gunman who killed the chief of the nation’s largest health insurer in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, hoping to piece together clues and beat police investigators at their own high-profile manhunt.

The shooter seemingly vanished after being caught on video in one of the world’s most surveilled cities, offering an online community of wannabe detectives a tantalizing case. They pored over street footage and digital data to guess his brand of backpack, debate how he had silenced his pistol and scrutinize his getaway bike.

But they are being confronted online by a rival movement: users who have lionized the gunman over an unconfirmed belief that the killing was an act of rage over the health insurance industry. They have shared memes branding the shooter as a “folk hero” and warned digital vigilantes not to track him down. “Anyone who helps to identify the shooter is an enemy of the people,” said one post on X with 39,000 likes.

Caption from article by Drew Harwell, Caitlin Gilbert and Douglas MacMillan.