UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown, blocks from tourist draws like Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art.
The gunman is still at large and a manhunt is underway.
Here’s the latest:
The New York Police Department released photos Thursday morning, asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the individual pictured. Police say the person is wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
A Senate panel has been investigating how frequently three major insurers, including UnitedHealthcare, deny care to patients who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. It has also investigated the use of artificial intelligence in deny those claims.
Medicare Advantage is the private version of Medicare, which provides health insurance to millions of older Americans.
The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee’s report released earlier this year found that as UnitedHealthcare relied more on its automated system to review claims denials increased for post-acute treatment, which includes nursing home or rehabilitation care. The insurer denied nearly a quarter of claims, a rate that doubled over just a two-year period from 2020 to 2022.
Joseph Kenny, the NYPD chief of detectives, says the shooter wore a black face mask, black-and-white sneakers and a distinctive gray backpack.
He arrived outside the hotel about five minutes before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson did, then waited and ignored other pedestrians before he approached Thompson from behind.
After the assailant began to fire, his 9 mm pistol jammed but he quickly fixed it and kept firing, Kenny said, another sign of the shooter’s professionalism.
“From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” Kenny said.
The hostels were on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and police were following a tip that the suspect may have stayed at one of the residences, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing search.
According to an employee of Kama Central Park, two detectives arrived at the hostel at 7 a.m. Thursday with a photo of the shooter and asked staff if they recognized the man. They did not, the employee said, and the detectives left soon after. An employee at the nearby HI New York City hostel also confirmed that police had visited the location Thursday, but declined to provide further information.
— Jake Offenhartz
New York Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday the shooter used a silencer — something he’d never encountered in his 22 years as a police officer.
“In all of my years in law enforcement I have never seen a silencer before,” Adams, a retired NYPD captain, said in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And so that was really something that was shocking to us all.”
The masked gunman used ammunition emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” a law enforcement official said Thursday. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The words on the ammunition may have been a reference to strategies insurance companies use to try to avoid paying claims.
Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny had said earlier.
— Mike Balsamo, Jake Offenhartz and Michael R. Sisak
The chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest insurers, was killed Wednesday in midtown Manhattan in what police described as a targeted attack by a shooter outside a hotel where the company was holding a conference.
▶ Read more about the key things to know about the fatal attack
