UnitedHealthcare CEO Gunned Down in NYC in What Police Are Calling a ‘Targeted Attack’
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was murdered in New York City Wednesday morning in what police are calling a targeted attack, CNN reported. A manhunt is underway for the gunman.
CNN News Central anchor John Berman reported the news that Thompson, the CEO of America’s largest health care company, had been “gunned down on the streets in what police are calling a targeted attack” Wednesday, “shot and killed while outside the Hilton hotel.”
Correspondent Brynn Gingras said that the shooting happened in midtown Manhattan, in an area not far from where the tree lighting was scheduled to occur at Rockefeller Center later that night. Thompson was reportedly heading to an investor conference for UnitedHealthcare that was taking place in the ballroom at the New York Hilton Midtown. The suspect was “waiting for some time” for Thompson outside the hotel, CNN reported.
The gunman “fired shots about twenty feet away from him as he was approaching that hotel — again, it appears it was a targeted attack,” said Gingras, and then, sources say, “fled through a back alley near a theater” — this took place in the heart of the NYC theater district — “hopped on a bicycle and that is how that suspect got away.”
Investigators were “combing that area” and “pulling video” from the many security cameras in the vicinity, she continued. Gingras noted that the suspect “was actually outside that hotel for quite a bit before Thompson actually approached that hotel — so that is why at this point right now, in the investigation, investigators believe this was a targeted attack.”
The New York Times reported that the shooting happened “just after 6:45 am” and the gunman shot Thompson in the chest. He was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead. According to the Times, the gunman “apparently knew which door Mr. Thompson was going to enter and shot him several times from mere feet away, then fled,” wearing “a cream-colored jacket, a black face mask and a gray backpack.”
Gingras later reported that the suspected gunman was believed to have fled into Central Park. No arrests have yet been made and the investigation is ongoing. The NYPD has planned a press conference at 11:30 am ET to provide updates on the investigation so far.
The conference was “abruptly ended” Wednesday, with the parent company UnitedHealth Group issuing a statement citing “a very serious medical situation with one of our team members,” according to CNN, but the company has not issued further comment so far.
Thompson was 50 years old and lived in Minnesota. He was named CEO of UnitedHealthcare in April 2021. According to the UnitedHealthcare website, Thompson joined UnitedHealthcare in 2004 and held “numerous leadership positions,” including previously serving “as chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare’s government programs business including Medicare & Retirement, the largest business dedicated to the health and well-being needs of seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries; and Community & State, which provides health care products and services to states that care for the economically disadvantaged, the medically underserved and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.” Before joining UnitedHealthcare, he was a CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
