New York police investigate the inscription on the bullet casing in the murder of an insurance company executive
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According to a person familiar with the case, detectives in New York are investigating the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on bullet casings left at the scene of the executive’s murder. UnitedHealth Group Brian Thompson.
The hunt for the killer enters its second day, New York Police Department published photos on X on Thursday morning of a person wanted for questioning over the murder. The NYPD, which is still searching for a motive behind the shooting, said “all indications are that this was a targeted and premeditated attack.”
One of the photos the NYPD released online along with a call for the public to come forward with any information related to the case, shows a man wearing a hoodie smiling at the counter.
Police believe the inscription on the bullet casing may be reminiscent of Jay Feinman’s 2010 book about the insurance industry. Delay, deny, defendsaid the person familiar with the case. The book examines how major health insurance companies avoid paying claims. Feinman, a professor at Rutgers Law School, declined to comment.
The shooting of Thompson, the head was based in Minnesota UnitedHealthcareinsurance unit, outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning stunned New Yorkers.
This person added that three bullet casings were left at the scene along with three live bullets.
CCTV footage of the incident shows a masked man wearing a hooded jacket firing multiple shots from a 9mm pistol equipped with a silencer before fleeing the scene.
Detectives do not believe that this individual is a professional killer but they think that he is proficient with guns because surveillance cameras recorded his gun jamming and he quickly rectified the problem. try.
The use of a silencer, which is illegal in New York state, suggests the shooter may have traveled from out of state, the person added.
Police were called to the scene just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, where they found Thompson unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at nearby Mount Sinai Hospital.
The shooter, who fled the scene on an electric bicycle toward Central Park, where he was last seen Wednesday morning, has not been arrested.
At a news conference Wednesday, Joseph Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, said the investigation would look at “everything” to determine the killer’s motive.
“We’re looking at his social media, we’re interviewing employees, we’re interviewing family members, we’re going to talk to law enforcement,” Kenny said. law in Minnesota.”
Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News in a phone interview Wednesday that “there have been some threats” against him, adding that they may have been related to “lack of news” but she did not know the exact details.
“I just know that he said some people threatened him,” she added.
UnitedHealth Group is the fourth-largest listed company in the US by revenue, and the insurance arm UnitedHealthcare run by Thompson generated about three-quarters of its $371.6 billion in 2023 revenue.
The health care group has become the subject of an ongoing antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice.
In April, lawmakers called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate UnitedHealth executives, including Thompson and corporate chief executive Andrew Witty, over stock sales ahead of reports. reported about the DoJ investigation, causing UnitedHealth’s stock price to suffer.
A massive cyberattack also rocked UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare division for months this year, causing $1.6 billion in damages and potentially exposing the data of a third of Americans.
Additional reporting by Josephine Cumbo
