Usually when a criminal is caught, it’s not due to the police doing top-notch investigative work, it’s that the criminal improperly prepared for the crime. They missed some detail, did not prepare for all the eventualities, and that slip up leaves a bread crumb for the cops.
This guy did it his prep work to a T:
- Knew his target’s schedule, picked a time when the area would be less crowded.
- While it’s not entirely clear if he was staying at a hostel or not, that’s a smart choice as those often will take cash and won’t require ID’s so it’s harder to trace.
- Burner phone, changes of clothes.
- Used a silencer to minimize noise, deftly unjammed the gun, zero hesitation in executing the target.
- Getaway on the bike, which is both more mobile than cop cars in Manhattan, but also negates the police’s camera tracking software that can identify people based on their gait.
- Heads for Central Park, the one bit of Manhattan, the one part of Manhattan that’s largely devoid of security cameras and has brush cover to dump the bag and change his jacket.
- Heads out of town via the port authority bus terminal, once again clever as it’s a distance transit option that will take cash and doesn’t require showing ID. Plus a lot of those no-name bus companies are shady AF and would probably be amenable to “no-tell” service and unauthorized stops to let someone out.
If he got a two day head start before the police realized how he got out of Manhattan, forget it, he could have to anywhere on the eastern seaboard or out to the Mississippi by then. They have no clue where to look for him.