Taking off towards the northeast means that you will overfly the city, instead of flat rural terrain. And that would not be possible, as they would not have enough height to clear all the roofs.
They would have ploughed through Mainstreet.
From this set of circumstances I would conclude that this "operator" knew what they were doing, and that they were cutting corners in a big way.
And, it occurs to me, so might have ATC. Was the downwind takeoff queried? Was the reciprocal runway offered and declined? If so, what reason was given? Has anyone found an ATC recording?