UnitedHealthcare CEO shot dead on Manhattan street

A man shot dead the CEO of the insurer UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in the middle of the street in Manhattan, New Yorkfirst thing in the morning of this Wednesday, December 4.

Thompson, 50, was on his way to the Hilton hotel in Midtown, a few blocks from Times Square, to participate in his company’s investor day when he was shot shortly before 7 a.m. and taken to a hospital where he was certified his death, the Police confirmed.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the suspect waited for Thompson for five minutes and shot him in the back. The pistol’s magazine initially jammed, but he fixed it and continued pulling the trigger, according to the preliminary investigation.

Kenny indicated that, according to the security videos, the suspect, a white-skinned man dressed casually and who was apparently going to attend the conference, “appears to be an expert in the use of weapons, since he was able to arrange the failure (of the gun) very quickly.”

The Chief of Police (NYPD), Jessica Tisch, declared at a press conference that The attack was “premeditated, planned and selective.”

Police are investigating whether Thompson, who was staying at a hotel near the Hilton and was going alone to his company event, had received threats.

His wife, Paulette Thompson, with whom he has two children, told NBC News that “some people had been threatening him.”

Reward offered for suspect

The last images of the suspect, shortly after the murder, show him entering Central Park on a public electric bicycle.

Three bullets and a mobile phone have been recovered at the crime scene and surrounding areas.

“We will not rest until we identify and capture the shooter in this case,” said Tisch, who offered a reward of $10,000 to citizens and assured that the police force will be reinforced at the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, near the Hilton hotel.

Thompson, a native of Minnesota, was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurer in the US, since 2021, and had been at the company’s parent company, the UnitedHealth group, for two decades, which also confirmed the news in a statement.

With information from EFE

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