NEW YORK, (Reuters) – New York police released new photos yesterday showing the face of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealth UNH.N executive Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, with the shooter still at large nearly 36 hours after authorities launched a citywide manhunt to track him down.
Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, was shot from behind early on Wednesday morning in what police described as a targeted attack by a masked assailant. It came just before the company’s annual investor conference at the Hilton on Sixth Avenue.
The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were carved into shell casings found at the scene, police sources told ABC and the New York Post. A New York City Police Department spokesperson would not comment on the report.
The words evoke the title of a book critical of the insurance industry published in 2010 titled “Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The author, Jay Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers University Law School, wrote, “Sorry, no comment” in an email when contacted by Reuters.
Authorities released new photos with a clear view of the suspect’s face on Thursday, a day after publishing photos that showed his face partially obscured by a ski mask, and have requested the public’s help in locating him. Police have also searched a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where the suspect is believed to have been staying, CNN reported.
Police have not publicly identified a motive, but Thompson appears to have been deliberately targeted, according to investigators.
Security video showed the shooter behind Thompson, 50, raising his handgun and firing at his back. Police said the gunman arrived outside the hotel several minutes before Thompson and waited for him to walk past before firing, ignoring other passers-by.
The suspect, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and the ski mask and wearing a gray backpack, fled on foot before mounting an electric bike and riding into Central Park, police said.
Police published a number of images of the suspect taken from video cameras in the area, including one with the gun raised and pointed toward Thompson and another of the suspect fleeing on the e-bike.
The city has the one of the most advanced surveillance systems of any major U.S. city, largely built after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD detective sergeant who is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
There are thousands of cameras in New York and all feeds can be monitored in real time as well as reviewed for previous footage, aided by facial recognition software.
“It’s called the real-time crime center: actionable intelligence can be relayed to the responding officers in the field,” Rodriguez said.
UnitedHealth is the largest U.S. health insurer, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country. Thompson, a father of two, joined UnitedHealth in 2004 and became the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, in April 2021.
The company has been grappling with the fallout from a massive data hack of its Change Healthcare unit that provides technology for U.S. healthcare providers, disrupting medical care for patients and reimbursement to doctors for months.
“Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him,” the company said in a statement.
In a video sent to employees on Wednesday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty announced Thompson’s death, calling him a “truly extraordinary person.” At its headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, the company lowered flags on campus to half-staff, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News on Wednesday that he had been receiving threats related to his job but said she did not know the details.
“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” she said later in a statement. “Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed.”
Police in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where Thompson lived, investigated a bomb threat targeting his home on Wednesday evening, more than 12 hours after he was killed.
Police searched two residences with the aid of the Minneapolis Police bomb squad but found no suspicious devices, the report said. In a press release, the police department said the threat appeared to have been a hoax.
