United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, Fatally Shot in NYC

Murder appears to be a targeted hit.

United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was fatally shot around 6:45 a.m. this Wednesday morning outside the Hilton Midtown hotel on Sixth Avenue near West 54th Street in New York City, NYPD sources said.

Thompson was not a guest at the Hilton, according to NYPD sources. He was staying at another hotel and was walking to the Hilton for a company conference.

The gunman has not been identified. New York Police Department sources described him as a white man wearing a jacket, black face mask, black and white sneakers and a grey colored backpack.

"It appears the suspect was lying in wait for several minutes, and as the victim was walking to the conference hotel, the suspect approached from behind and fired several rounds, striking the victim at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference. "Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target. The suspect fled first on foot, then on an e-bike, and was last seen in Central Park on Center Drive."

Though the following video still of the shooter is too grainy to say for sure, it appears that his pistol is equipped with a silencer.

Infographic published by The Daily Mail

All of the above circumstances indicate that the murder was an organized, professional hit. The gunman likely knew that Thompson was not staying at the Hilton but would be walking into the Hilton between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. Note that this is fairly precise intelligence.

Thompson was appointed CEO of UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group's insurance division, in April 2021. He started working for the UnitedHealth Group (headquartered in Minneapolis) in 2004. Prior to his latest position, he was CEO of the company's government programs, including Medicare and retiree coverage, and community and state programs providing Medicaid and other types of coverage to millions of individuals.

If I were an NYP homicide detective, I would consider the working hypothesis that Thompson was planning to disclose information or make an announcement at the conference that someone with power wished to remain concealed. The brazen and extremely high risk nature of the attack in Manhattan suggests a great and immediate urgency to eliminate the target. This suggests the motive to eliminate Thompson arose shortly before he attended the conference. If the assassin were motivated by jealousy or a desire for revenge for a personal injury, it seems unlikely he would have committed the murder in an environment with so many witnesses.

Though it may be just a coincidence, I noticed that UnitedHealth has, this year, been under a Department of Justice investigation (per antitrust law) for its relationship with the physician network Optum and for its recent $3.3 billion acquisition of rival home health and hospice services provider Amedisys Inc.

I wonder what the many people who passed the gunman thought about the fact that he was wearing a black face mask. Did they mistake him for one of those hyper-neurotic people who still wear masks in the fall out of fear of contracting COVID-19?

It strikes me as likely that his grey backpack contained a change of clothes. If so, I wonder where he changed after fleeing from the scene.