The CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division was killed in gunshots outside the Hilton hotel in New York.
According to the police Brian Thompson50, was the victim of a “targeted attack”. He was in the hotel just before 7 this morning, arriving early for a conference, when a masked man who was waiting for him shot him repeatedly and fled eastbound on 6th Avenue, the New York Post reports.
Thompson, who was shot in the chest, was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead. Andrew Witty, CEO of parent company UnitedHealth Group, said the company was holding its Investor Day conference at the hotel on Wednesday, and that Thompson was expected to attend. The conference has been cancelled.
The suspect was described as a white man wearing a cream-colored jacket, a black mask and black and white sneakers.
Witnesses told the Post that he had been spotted wandering near the hotel on 6th Avenue.
According to sources cited by the newspaper, when he saw Thompson
he started shooting from afarhitting him several times and then fleeing through Ziegfeld Alley, mounted a bicycle to get away from the scene.
Thompson, who had been at UnitedHealth for 20 years, took over the CEO role in 2021 and was headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Before that, he worked for six years in Minneapolis at PwC, an accounting and auditing firm.
He previously led the company’s government programs, including Medicare and Retirement. UnitedHealth Group, which employs more than 100,000 people in America, is ranked fourth on the Fortune 500.
His wife: “He had received death threats”
The wife of insurance giant CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed today in Manhattan, said her husband had recently received death threats. “Honestly – said Paulette Thompson, speaking to NBC News – I don’t know the reason, maybe the lack of insurance coverage?”