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Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside of a Midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4.
He was laid to rest at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on December 9. That same day, murder suspect Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania following a week-long manhunt.
Ten days before the exec was shot dead outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, the suspected shooter was believed to have traveled to New York City on a Greyhound bus. Five days after the shooting, Mangione was in handcuffs. The 26-year-old suspect is being held in a federal detention center in New York, where he faces more than a dozen state and federal counts, including murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s everything we know so far in the build-up and aftermath of the fatal attack on the 50-year-old insurance CEO:
Thompson shot in ‘premeditated attack’
The suspected shooter had been hiding behind a car outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan for about five minutes when Thompson exited, police said. The suspect was spotted at a nearby Starbucks on West 56th Street and 6th Avenue shortly before the shooting.
The shooter, who was wearing a mask, approached Thompson from behind and shot him in the right calf and back at 6:46 a.m. Video of the incident shows the shooter calmly walking up behind Thompson before firing, then calmly crossing the street. The footage also showed a bystander running away as the killing unfolded.
“The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again,” New York Police Department’s Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
The shooting was a “premeditated, pre-planned targeted attack,” police said. Thompson appeared unaware he was in danger and had no security detail near him.
Thompson was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes later.
The shooter fled the scene through an alleyway on an e-bike. He biked via 6th Avenue to Central Park. Security footage shows the suspect entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said. However, they did not find footage of him leaving the depot, indicating he had left the city on a bus.
Thompson was in the city to speak at the UnitedHealth Group’s annual Investor Conference the day of his death.
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the company said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him.”
New clues emerged
On December 5, police released images of the suspect with his mask pulled down. The photos came from a surveillance video at the New York City hostel where the Mangione was staying.
Police say he arrived in New York City on November 24 after jumping on a bus departing from Atlanta.
On the day he arrived in New York City, Mangione was captured on surveillance video stepping off the bus at around 9 p.m. and spotted walking through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, police said.
He then checked into an Upper West Side hostel, left on November 29 and then used a fake New Jersey ID to check back in on November 30.
While in the hostel, he slept in a multi-person room with two other men and wore a mask for the majority of his stay, according to CNN.
Both Greyhound and the hostel’s parent company, Hostelling International USA, told ABC News in a statement that they are “fully cooperating with the NYPD” but cannot comment further due to the active investigation.
Authorities found three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings, as well as a cell phone, at the scene of the shooting. They also recovered a candy wrapper and water bottle believed to belong to the suspect, according to ABC News.
The bullet casings police found at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them.
A 2020 book by Jay Feinman about the insurance industry bears a similar title: Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. The book describes itself as an “expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back”. Feinman did not comment when contacted by The Independent.
At the time of his Pennsylvania arrest, Mangione was carrying a 262-page manifesto, a ghost gun, silencer and false ID cards, police said. He also had a spiral notebook which laid out his plot to “wack” Thompson at his “parasitic bean-counter convention”, according to The New York Times.
Wife reveals Thompson received threats as police search for motive
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News in the hours after the shooting that her husband had been receiving threats. UnitedHealth Group was aware of concerning threats against its executives, CNN reported.
«There had been some threats,» she told the outlet. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [health insurance] coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Family and leaders mourn CEO
Family, friends and business leaders gathered for Thompson’s private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on December 9 – the same day his suspected shooter was arrested in Pennsylvania.
Over a dozen state troopers, 100 cars and two dozen black SUV’s lined the Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, as security measures were put in place for mourners, according to Fox News. The news outlet reported that a sniper was spotted on the church roof and a security code was needed to get into the service.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Thompson’s sister Elena Reveiz told The New York Times that her brother was a “good person, and I am so sad.”
“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” Thompson’s family said in a statement to Minnesota news outlet KARE. “We appreciate your condolences and request complete privacy as our family moves through this difficult time,” the statement continued.
Thompson was a father of two. Before taking the CEO job in 2021, he worked as the company’s head of government programs. As CEO, Thompson worked out of UnitedHealthcare’s offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Thompson kept a low profile with little public name recognition, the Associated Press reported.
Thompson was also named in a lawsuit filed by a Florida pension fund earlier this year accusing UnitedHealth of hiding an antitrust investigation by the Justice Department from shareholders while insiders sold stock, according to the Journal. Thompson had not answered the claims in court before the shooting on December 4.
Under his leadership, UnitedHealthcare provided coverage to more than 49 million people, making it the largest insurance company in the U.S. The network includes 1.3 million physicians and care professionals across nearly 7,000 facilities.
Under Thompson, the company made $74 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter, earning the title of the largest subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. Thompson made $10.2 million annually and was one of the company’s highest-paid employees.
