Assassinated United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson Was Under Investigation

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The shocking assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday was probably not a “professional” hit, according to several investigators familiar with the case. The assassin was waiting patiently outside the New York Hilton Midtown where an investors meeting was taking place. The masked gunman, who remains at large, carried out a “brazen, targeted attack” that was “premeditated,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.

The shooter may not have been a “professional” but the murder was well planned. After he fired several shots at Thompson, hitting the executive in the back and the thigh, his gun jammed. He cleared the chamber and fired several more shots before running into an alleyway. He emerged on Sixth Avenue and walked to where he had parked an electric Citibike. The suspect then rode down Sixth Avenue to Central Park, where he disappeared.

It took just four minutes for the gunman to kill Thompson and disappear into the park.

The gunman’s use of a Citibike was a telltale sign to investigators that he was not very sophisticated.

New York Times:

Between the creation of a Citi Bike account, connecting it to a credit card, undocking it, riding it around the city and docking it at a new location, every user creates many “streams of digital breadcrumbs” that can help Lyft, the company that operates Citi Bike, track the user’s location, and possibly their identity, Mr. Shmoys said.

Combined with the user’s phone data and location shared with cell towers, “It is amazing how much information is conveyed,” Mr. Shmoys said.

Thompson was one of several senior executives at United Healthcare whom the Justice Department was investigating for insider trading. Thompson, along with UnitedHealth Group chairman Stephen Helmsley, Chief People Officer Erin McSweeney, and Chief Accounting Officer Tom Roos, sold a combined $101.5 million in shares before the Justice Department investigation became known last February.

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Social media is not very sympathetic to Thompson’s wife and two teenage sons. United Healthcare is an easy target, being the largest insurance company in the U.S..

It’s actually kind of touching that the one thing that can bring together our fractious and disunited country is celebrating the assassination of a health insurance CEO.

— David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) December 4, 2024

Rolling Stone:

“As someone covered under UnitedHealthCare I can completely understand the actions taken,” wrote an X user replying to a news link about Thompson’s murder “being investigated as a possible hit,” according to a statement from law enforcement. “Did he have a pre-existing condition?” asked another. And under an ABC News TikTok on police officers’ efforts to find the killer, a user asked, “Why are they investigating this?”

The assassin left a chilling message on the bullet casings that were found at the scene; “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.” Those words are the title of a book about how insurance companies deny coverage to their customers.

🚨interesting turn in the Brian Thompson case.

The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” which also happen to be the name of a book about how insurers won’t pay claims, were discovered by detectives on the shell casings found at the scene where Brian Thompson, the CEO of major… pic.twitter.com/PCJWawxhiM

— Sean (@Xcellent78) December 5, 2024