The unanswered questions: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder leaves trail of unknowns
Police are still looking for the gunman who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a NYC hotel on Wednesday
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The gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel on Wednesday is still at large – but police appear to be honing in on the suspect’s identity as their search intensifies.
Thompson, a 50-year-old Minnesota resident, was due to speak at an investor meeting when he was gunned down at point-blank range around 6:45 a.m. outside the New York Hilton Midtown on 6th Avenue in what police are calling a “targeted attack.”
The suspect was last seen cycling out of Central Park on West 85th Street just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday about 12 minutes after cycling into the park on an e-bike, according to footage obtained by NBC News. Police have footage of him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal soon afterward, but no footage of him leaving, indicating he may have taken a bus out of the city.
Police also released new photos of the suspect getting into a taxi late Saturday.
As of Sunday afternoon, new clues have emerged as police continue to piece together information regarding the assailants’ whereabouts before the CEO was fatally shot. The FBI has now joined the investigation, offering $50,000 for information on the suspect.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday “the net is tightening” around the suspect. He added that law enforcement officials do not want to release the suspect’s name at this time.
“If we do, we are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all,” Adams said.
Who is the shooter?
The gunman was lying in wait for Thompson outside the Hilton on Wednesday morning before opening fire. His name has not been released, nor is there a clear picture of his face. At this point, nobody has taken responsibility for the slaying.
The suspect was captured on camera at a nearby Starbucks. Images from surveillance footage show the suspect to be a man wearing all black, with a black face mask, black and white sneakers and carrying a gray backpack.
That same backpack was found in Central Park. Police later revealed the contents included Monopoly money and a Tommy Hilfiger jacket.
Investigators believe the suspect “could possibly be a disgruntled employee or a disgruntled client,” according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“This isn’t ‘Blue Bloods,’” Kenny said at a press conference on Friday, referring to a popular TV show starring Tom Selleck. “We’re not going to solve this in 60 minutes. We’re painstakingly going through every bit of evidence that we can come across.”
“He appeared to wait for his intended target,” New York Police Department commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday during a press conference. “I want to be clear: At this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.”
During his escape, the gunman appeared to drop a water bottle he had purchased from Starbucks 30 minutes before the attack.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN that investigators have a “huge amount of evidence” in their search. This includes DNA evidence, fingerprints and a “massive camera canvass” of the suspect’s movements, Tisch told the outlet.
What was the motive?
Police have not released an official motive for the shooting - but many have speculated the killing might be connected to Thompson’s role in running one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies.
Officials described the killing as a “targeted attack,” and it was later revealed that the gunman left behind a cryptic message at the scene.
According to police sources, the three words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” were carved into the live rounds and shell casings found outside the Hilton Hotel.
Several of the bullets were each inscribed with one of the three words.
The words are similar to the book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claim and What You Can Do About It by Rutgers Law School’s Jay Feinman. The book’s blurb describes it as an “expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back.”
Officials are still searching for the firearm, which may have been a veterinary gun – a larger firearm used by farmers to put down animals without making a loud noise, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said earlier this week.
NYPD divers searched a Central Park pond for the firearm on Saturday.
Where did the shooter arrive from?
The armed suspect is reported to have traveled via Greyhound bus to New York 10 days before the horror shooting unfolded, according to law enforcement sources who spoke to CNN.
Sources say he arrived in New York City on 24 November after jumping on a bus departing from Atlanta but officials have not been able to pinpoint exactly where he boarded – stating it could have been in Atlanta or elsewhere.
On the day he arrived in New York City, he was captured on CCTV surveillance stepping off the bus at around 9pm ET and was spotted walking through the Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, said law enforcement sources.
He then checked into an Upper West Side hostel, left on 29 November, and then used a fake New Jersey driver’s license to check back in on 30 November.
While in the hostel, he is reported to have slept in a multi-person room with two other males and wore a mask for the majority of his stay, according to CNN.
His whereabouts from 30 November to Wednesday are still unclear but he is believed to have stayed at the hostel during this time.
Four days after the suspect is thought to have re-checked into the Upper West Side hostel, Thompson was “brazenly” shot from behind outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. That same day, police say they found footage of the suspect entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but no footage of him leaving, indicating he may have escaped on a bus.
Both Greyhound and the hostel’s parent company, Hostelling International USA, told ABC News in a statement that they are "fully cooperating with the NYPD" but cannot comment further due to the active investigation.
Why did he not have security with him?
Thompson was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the insurance wing of parent company UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
He had worked at the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company for two decades and led its insurance division since 2021. He was one of the company’s highest-paid executives, with a $10.2 million annual compensation package.
His wife said he had recently received threats from angry customers over complaints she believed may have had to do with “a lack of coverage”.
“I don’t know details,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News. “I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Despite the alleged threats, Thompson did not have security with him on the morning of the shooting.
However, the Associated Press reported that Thompson kept a low profile, with UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s CEO Andrew Witty taking on a more public-facing role that included testifying before Congress.
Eric Werner, chief of police for Maple Grove, Minnesota, where Thomspon lived, said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive.
Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group, addressed employee concerns about safety, according to a meeting recording shared by CNN.
“I know people are nervous around security and safety, and you will be seeing during the rest of the day, over the weekend and next week, a continued hardening of our security defenses on site across the country,” Witty said.