The CEO of the UnitedHealthcare insurer, Brian Thompson, died this Wednesday after being shot near a hotel in downtown Manhattan early in the morning, according to media reports such as The New York Post. 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.
The newspaper, which cites police sources, indicates that Thompson was shot in the chest by a masked man outside the Hilton hotel, and that the attacker fled after the attack.
Unitedhealthcare, which is the largest private insurer in the United States and belongs to the Unitedhealth group, was holding its investor day at the Hilton hotel in Midtown, which has been canceled, reports the CNBC channel.
Unitedhealth did not respond to a request for information.
Thompson was heading to the hotel for a conference when the attacker, who was apparently waiting for him, shot him several times from a distance of about 20 feet (6 meters), investigators told CNN.
Authorities described the suspect, who has not been arrested, as a white man wearing a cream-colored jacket, a black mask over his face, black and white sneakers and a gray backpack, the Post notes.
Police offer reward
The New York Police offered a reward this Wednesday for any clue that leads to the capture of the man who this morning shot dead the CEO of the insurance company UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in the middle of the street in Manhattan.
The Chief of Police (NYPD), Jessica Tisch, declared at a press conference that the attack was “premeditated, planned and selective,” and that the suspect waited for Thompson to approach before shooting him several times, wounding him in the back and the leg, and flee on an electric bicycle.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the suspect waited five minutes for Thompson and shot him in the back, initially jamming the gun’s magazine, but he fixed it and continued pulling the trigger, according to police. 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.”
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.”
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.
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