UnitedHealthcare CEO Gunned Down Outside of Manhattan Hotel

New York City, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is dead following what officials are calling a “targeted attack” outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Thompson was slated to speak to a room full of colleagues and investors, officials said. Police said Thompson was leaving the hotel when the masked gunman came up behind him and shot him several times. The gunman then rode away on a bicycle, officials said.

“Based on the evidence so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted, but we do not know why,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Wednesday. “This does not appear to be a random act of violence.”

In a press conference on Wednesday, officials said the gunman was seen at the scene several minutes before Thompson, video surveillance showed.

“He was lying in wait for several minutes,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during the press conference. “Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target.”

Then he fired several rounds, striking the victim once in the back and right calf.”

Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, reported that the Minnesota-based father of two had received threats before his trip to New York.

“There had been some threats,” she told the New York Daily News. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

Officials said Thompson had exited his hotel across the street and was walking to the Residences Hilton Club on W. 54th St. near Sixth Avenue at about 6:45 a.m. to help set up the conference where he would be speaking to investors.

Witnesses said the gunman was dressed in a black sweatshirt, a black face mask, black-and-white sneakers, and was carrying a large gray backpack. Surveillance video at a nearby Starbucks showed the gunman in the store just moments before the shooting, his face partially covered by a mask.

Moments later, the surveillance video showed Thompson in a blue blazer, walking down W. 54th St., and the gunman stepping up behind him. In the video, the gunman fired one round and appeared to notice his gun was jammed. However, the gunman calmly cleared the chamber using what police called a “tap, rack, bang” move, indicating he was proficient with firearms.

The gunman then shot Thompson two more times before walking past him and darting in between two parked cars and running off. The gunman ran through a nearby plaza and got onto a CitiBike to escape, police said. The entire shooting took place within minutes, officials said., as cars sped by the sidewalk where the shooting took place. Police found three 9-mm. shell casings at the scene as well as a few live rounds that had been expelled from the pistol as the gunman freed the jam, as well as a cell phone that was located where the gunman had been standing.

Thompson was rushed to Mount Sinai West, where he died of his wounds at about 7:12 a.m., officials said.

Detectives said they were working with authorities in Minnesota, as well as with co-workers and family “to see if there have been any threats against him in the past.”

Mayor Eric Adams said City Hall had reached out to UnitedHealthcare to provide assistance and assured New Yorkers that the threat was contained.

“NYPD is on the job,” he said. “We want to just really calm New Yorkers and particularly business executives that again, this was not what appears to be just a random act of violence — it seems to have been clearly targeted by an individual, and we will apprehend that individual.”

At the hotel, UnitedHealthcare executive attempted to continue with the presentation but cut it short.

“We’re dealing with a very serious medical situation,” UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty told the crowd as he cancelled the rest of the day’s activities.

Thompson was made chief executive officer for UnitedHealthcare in April 2021, according to the company. Prior to that, he had served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare government programs including Medicare & Retirement and Community and State, and prior to that as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement. 

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