What causes the bounty hunters and police to attack you relentlessly?

Question

In Red Dead Redemption 2 it's no mystery how you end up with a price on your head and that bounty hunters will try to find you if you are worth anything at all. The other day, admittedly with a $500 bounty on my head which may be the game's maximum per region, I was attacked by bounty hunters that just magically appeared on the screen and radar unlike how they normally appear, which is a red haze in a direction.

Fortunately, I ride guns out all the time and I was able to slaughter that attack quickly but not thinking anything of it, I tried to loot the bodies and many more showed up before I was done looting even the first guy. I took them down too. Then more and more and not just bounty hunters, also guys with star icons surrounding me and charging hard - maybe military, maybe police. Not sure. By way of blind luck, lots of pre-cooked core refilling food, miracle tonics, and a ton of bullets I managed to live through what seemed like a 10 minute unending rampage where everyone in the country wanted me dead badly. Probably 50 to 80 men died that day. The battle was one of legends.

I lived. It was amazing. I never paid that bounty off, but seeking the challenge I often ride around that area seeing if they ever send an assault like that at me again. So far it never happened again, so I don't think it's just that I have maxed out my bounty price.

What exactly triggers this kind of assault? I know if I step foot near Blackwater, which I am currently wanted dead or alive, they come out of the woodwork but not in unending waves like before. Maybe I did something without knowing it, like smacking a cop with my horse or something. Sometimes lawmen just ride out in the open and I am not the most careful of riders. I was in the swamps in northern Lemoyne when this massive attack happened. Far from a city.

Anyone else experienced this and know how to trigger that kind of attack again?

UPDATE

It happened again. This time in another region of leymoyne by the civil war site. No known trigger but this time I was much more prepared. I fended off some hundred men or so with the fury of a full army. They spawn with no time between. It's like the game goes into some kind of elimination mode and it won't stop until you're dead. After a while I figured it would never end and I took off and happened to run into Rhodes where I am still somehow a deputy. They immediately quit the assault and left me alone. The down side to this is the bodies disappeared so I couldn't loot them but all the horses I killed were still there so I could loot their saddlebags and recover something from the attack. It was amazing and I'd like to know what makes this happen. It's clearly not a fluke but still no insight on what I did to make it happen.

Answer 1

Information in this answer was taken from the "Read Dead Wiki" and the links are included.

This sounds as if you had a run in with the Pinktertons and I did find on the red dead wiki two entries that might answer your question.

Pinktertons spawn during chapters in certain areas or kill you via sniping without you having a chance to escape. You can read more about that in this article under the "Gameplay" headline.

I found as well this article describing what causes bounty, how much it causes and what bounty hunter reaction you can expect given the amount of the bounty current set for you head.

I assume since your bounty currently is only $500 you are yet in one of the earlier chapters of the game which will call the Pinktertons if you are in certain areas and this as well will cause them to spawn rather quickly, probably to keep you away from certain game areas you are not supposed to be at during that time.