By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

Who Killed Brian Thompson and Why?

A police manhunt was underway on Thursday (and currently still is) in New York for the suspect who killed UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson in a targeted attack outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning before fleeing into Central Park.

Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit, was gunned down from behind in what police described as a targeted attack by a masked assailant lying in wait. It came just before the company's annual investor conference at the Hilton on Sixth Avenue. 

The words "deny," "defend" and "depose" were carved into shell casings found at the scene, police sources told ABC and the New York Post. A New York City Police Department spokesperson would not comment on the report.

The words evoke the title of a book critical of the insurance industry published in 2010 titled "Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It." The author, Jay Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers University Law School, wrote, "Sorry, no comment" in an email when contacted by Reuters.

Authorities released a new photo with a clear view of the suspect's face on Thursday, a day after publishing photos that showed his face partially obscured by a ski mask, and have asked the public's help in locating him. Police have also searched a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side where the suspect is believed to have been staying, CNN reported.

A person walks with luggage by the New York International Hostel, where the suspect in the fatal shooting of CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson is believed to have stayed, in the Upper West Side area of New York City, U.S., December 5, 2024. 

Police have not publicly identified a motive, but Thompson appears to have been deliberately targeted, according to investigators.

Security video showed the shooter behind Thompson, 50, raising his handgun and firing at his back. Police said the gunman arrived outside the hotel several minutes before Thompson and waited for him to walk past before firing, ignoring other passers-by.

The suspect, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and the ski mask and wearing a gray backpack, fled on foot before mounting an electric bike and riding into Central Park, police said.

Police published several images of the suspect taken from video cameras in the area, including one with the gun raised and pointed toward Thompson and another of the suspect fleeing on the bike.

The city has one of the most advanced surveillance systems of any major U.S. city, largely built after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD detective sergeant who is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

There are thousands of cameras in New York and all feeds can be monitored in real-time as well as reviewed for previous footage, aided by facial recognition software.

"It's called the real-time crime center: actionable intelligence can be relayed to the responding officers in the field," Rodriguez said.

 

Extraordinary Person

UnitedHealth is the largest U.S. health insurer, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country. Thompson, a father of two, joined UnitedHealth in 2004 and became the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, in April 2021.

The company has been grappling with the fallout from a massive data hack of its Change Healthcare unit that provides technology for U.S. healthcare providers, disrupting medical care for patients and reimbursement to doctors for months. 

"Our hearts go out to Brian's family and all who were close to him," the company said in a statement.

In a video sent to employees on Wednesday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty announced Thompson's death, calling him a "truly extraordinary person." At its headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, the company lowered flags on campus to half-staff, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Thompson's wife, Paulette, told NBC News on Wednesday that he had been receiving threats related to his job but said she did not know the details.

"Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives," she said later in a statement. "Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed."

Police in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where Thompson lived, said there were no reports of threats to Thompson, but one reported incident of "suspicious activity" at his home in June 2018.

Paulette Thompson told police she was getting ready for bed when she reported seeing the deadbolt turning on their front door. Police found no sign of an attempted break-in and no one on the property.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Kyoko Gasha and Amina Niasse in New York, Rich McKay in Atlanta, and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; writing by Joseph Ax; editing by Rami Ayyub, Cynthia Osterman, Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

 

The Potential Motive?

Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.

Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors.

The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.

As that lawsuit made its way through the courts, anger regarding the massive insurer's predilection towards denying claims has only grown, and speculation about the assassin's motives suggests that he may have been among those upset with UHC's coverage.

Though we don't yet know the identity of the person who shot Thompson nor his reasoning, reports claim that he wrote the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" on the shell casing of the bullets used to shoot the CEO — a message that makes it sound a lot like the killer was aggrieved against the insurance industry's aggressive denials of coverage to sick patients.

Beyond the shooter's own motives, it's clear from the shockingly celebratory reaction online to Thompson's murder that anger about the American insurance and healthcare system has reached the point of literal bloodlust.

As The American Prospect aptly put it, "only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO."

The shooting of a UnitedHealth executive in Manhattan has triggered broad concerns about corporate security, with large companies rushing to assess whether their top employees have sufficient protection. Security chiefs of groups on both sides of the Atlantic are sharing intelligence and making inquiries with specialist companies on how to shield top executives.

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will fight extradition to New York.

He appeared at an extradition hearing at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania after New York prosecutors charged him with murder, among other counts, related to the deadly shooting in Manhattan last week.

• Charges: New York prosecutors charged Mangione, who was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday, with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, online court documents show.
• What else was in the court documents: Mangione was found with “a black 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer,” which was also 3D printed, according to the complaint. Detective Yousef Demes of the Midtown North Detective Squad also outlined evidence that officials say proves Mangione is the person depicted in surveillance video fatally shooting Thompson outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
• Court appearance: The suspect arrived to court, yelling, in part, “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It’s lived experience” as he was escorted from the car to inside the building. Inside the courtroom, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks detailed what was found on Mangione when he was arrested. The judge denied bail.
• What happens now: Since Mangione is fighting extradition, a Pennsylvania court has given him 14 days to file for writ of habeas corpus, and a hearing will be scheduled if he does. Mangione will stay at Huntingdon State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. Prosecutors have 30 days to obtain a governor’s warrant, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she will work with prosecutors to sign. Weeks said his office is prepared “to do what’s necessary” to get Mangione back to New York.
• Mangione’s lawyer: Defense attorney Tom Dickey said he has been retained to represent Mangione, though he wouldn’t say who hired him. He also said his client would be pleading not guilty to the charges he faces in Pennsylvania, which are related to the fake ID and gun found when Mangione was searched. He also said he anticipates Mangione would plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and that it’s “a possibility” he could represent him there.
• Reported missing: Mangione was the subject of a missing persons report filed in San Francisco by his mother on November 18, according to reporting from The New York Times. CNN has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department. The NYPD has said that Mangione had ties to San Francisco — though the exact time he was there is unclear.
• Back injury: The suspect may have suffered a back injury in July 2023, New York Police Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny told Fox News, pointing to “some of the writing that he had” where he “was discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury.” Kenny said investigators are looking into if anything happened with the insurance claim. Police found a handwritten document when Mangione was arrested.

 

 

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