Expert: New trend among ‘next generation of killers’ revealed

What is new, experts say, is the practice of writing messages on ammunition to use in high-profile killings. ‘There’s a trend emerging here,’ said Jillian Snider, a retired New York City police officer who lectures in John Jay College’s Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration. She sees bullet messages as a hallmark of a new generation of killers – the shooters’ way, through the first real evidence collected, to make a statement right when the story is fresh.

‘Traditionally, you’d see handwritten notes or manifestos for the world to read after the fact. But now they’re leaving notes on the very objects they’re using to actually kill people.’ The practice made headlines in December when the words deny, defend and depose, scrawled with a Sharpie, appeared on 9mm shell casings where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally gunned down on a New York City street. Those words, which refer to a phrase describing tactics insurance companies allegedly use to avoid paying medical claims, became public days before suspected killer Luigi Mangione, then 26, was identified and arrested. By leaving them like breadcrumbs at the crime scene, Snider and other experts say, Mangione seems to have intentionally framed how the narrative around the CEO’s assassination would unfold…

‘People understand that memes are very powerful and get a lot of attention. As soon as people read them, they’re going to desperately try to figure out what the reference means. It makes it more interesting.’ Because shooters writing on bullets is relatively new, Snider notes ‘there are no academic studies on it yet.’ Her take is that it’s an easy way for 20-something killers ‘to draw attention and seek out instant notoriety and fame.’ ‘These are fame-seeking shooters sending a message not only to their targets, but to the world,’ she said. As she sees it, ‘There’s no doubt that Robinson saw the engagement and support Luigi Mangione got from his bullet casings and was trying to mimic and copycat what Luigi did by putting his own voice on those bullets.’

The fact that the cryptic messages are still the topic of national conversation a week after Kirk’s shooting, she added, leads her to suspect that ‘we’re going to see a lot more bullet engravings in high-profile shooting incidents in the future.’