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Tragedy struck Midtown Manhattan moments before sunrise Wednesday in what some believed to be a “targeted assassination” of a healthcare executive.

(Video Credit: Fox 5 New York)

In New York City, on the dawn of the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, 50-year-old Brian Thompson was fatally shot mere blocks away outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel. What’s more, witnesses on the scene reported the fleeing suspect had been seen waiting for hours before he allegedly opened fire on the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

According to police and witnesses, Thompson had arrived at the hotel where the UnitedHealth Group parent company was slated to hold its Investor Day conference when an individual wearing a black mask in a hood with a gray backpack fired from around 20 feet away shortly before 7 a.m.

While the suspect fled through a nearby alley and was spotted thereafter riding away on a bicycle, emergency workers arrived on the scene and endeavored to save the victim who’d suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.

Having been transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition, Thompson was later pronounced dead from his injuries.

According to the hotel general manager, though the conference was being held at their location, the victim had not been a registered guest at the hotel, reported CNN, as UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty suspended the scheduled event.

Reacting to the tragedy amid an administration fraught with violent crime, Fox 5 detailed that New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said, “It appears as though this was a targeted murder.”

This came as within an hour of the incident, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ (D) X account shared a post touting reduced crime that read, “As New Yorkers and visitors enjoy the holidays in the greatest city in the world, they will be SAFE thanks to the hard work of the [NYPD]. The data from November proves that: overall crime was down nearly 6% AND subway crime was down nearly 16%!”

The contrast between how the Big Apple is dealing with rampant crime and the focus of prosecutors is especially striking, not only after considerable effort was spent on the criminal trial of now-President-elect Donald Trump, but as the city seeks to put U.S. Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny behind bars for interceding on behalf of a subway car full of frightened passengers.

As Sean Davis, co-founder and CEO of The Federalist put it, “Targeted assassinations are happening in the middle of New York City, so obviously the city prosecutor is focused on imprisoning a Good Samaritan who had the audacity to protect a train full of people from a nutjob.”

At the time of this post, the New York Police Department was continuing its search for the suspect and announced a $10,000 reward for information about the suspect featured in two surveillance photos — one appearing to brandish a firearm and the other fleeing on a bicycle.

Kevin Haggerty
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