The shock slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has all the makings of a “vendetta” assassination carried out by a man with “personal grievances” against the health insurance company he oversaw.
James Pipe, a criminologist at Free Grants for Felons, told the Daily Beast there were “several notable aspects” that support this theory, including that the no-name assassin left behind inscribed bullet casing with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on them.
“These terms are reminiscent of strategies employed by insurance companies to minimize payouts,” Pipe noted. “This suggests the killer intended to convey a message, potentially indicating a deep-seated frustration with insurance practices.”
Many have theorized that the killer, who remained at large on Thursday afternoon, was actually a paid assassin hired to take out Thompson. Driving that conspiracy is the shooter’s use of a silencer, his planned escape-by-bike, and how methodically he went about the killing—waiting for Thompson outside a hotel and shooting him multiple times despite there being witnesses in clear view.
The mystery “murderer” was captured unloading at least three shots into Thompson before he fled the Midtown Hilton just after 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning by hopping on an e-bike and disappearing into Central Park.
Pipe acknowledged that the gunman showed “a high level of professionalism” that would suggest he was a hired assassin, but said the discovery of casing inscriptions throws cold water on that theory. A hitman would never leave such “identifiable traces,” he said.
“The suspect’s actions—waiting for Thompson, executing the attack with precision, and leaving symbolic messages—suggests a perpetrator with a strong motive,” he added. “The evidence points toward a highly motivated individual, possibly with personal grievances against Thompson or UnitedHealthcare, who sought to make a statement through both the act and the messages left behind.”
Gene Petrino, a former SWAT commander who now consults as a survival expert, said the slaying of a CEO by a disgruntled customer is not a new phenomenon. He told the Daily Beast that once cops identify the shooter, they’ll likely find that the gunman was “leaking” warning signs about his plans.
He said that such a coordinated killing probably included “planning,” “preparation,” and a “probing” phase for the suspect that may have even included doing practice runs of the shooting.
Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist and regular trial expert, told the Daily Beast that the gunman was likely an enraged loved one of somebody who died because their health insurance “wouldn’t pay for sufficient treatment.”
Lieberman didn’t totally dismiss the theory that the gunman may have been hired help, however. She said investigators need to take a close look at Thompson’s loved ones and see if there was any reason they wanted the married father-of-two—who had an estimated net worth north of $40 million—killed under the guise of being the work of a disgruntled patient’s loved one.
“[They may be] trying to create a story, a bad story, hoping to convince the public that it was a disgruntled patient’s family,” she said.
The psychiatrist added that the gunman “demonstrated skills” that were akin to a “professional shooter,” like his ability to fix a jammed gun on the fly. She also noted there wasn’t much of a reaction from the killer after Thompson collapsed to the Manhattan sidewalk. Had the gunman been driven by rage to kill, Lieberman said she’d expect to see more emotion from him after his planned hit became a success.
“[A disgruntled patient’s] family member would be much more emotional about the whole thing,” she said. “We would see them being more radical, looking more radically.”
Lieberman said she was surprised by the reaction of Thompson’s wife, Paulette, in an interview she gave to NBC News just hours after her husband was shot dead.
“There had been some threats,” Paulette told the network. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.” Police sources corroborated that there’d been threats against Thompson to The New York Times.
Lieberman said that reaction was “strange” and that Paulette appeared “stone faced.” Later Thursday, a report emerged in the Wall Street Journal that claimed Thompson and his wife had been separated for years and lived in separate homes near each other.
Security footage that captured the gunman inside a nearby Starbucks just before the killing—with his mask down and a grin on full display—seemingly weakens claims that he was an experienced, hired assassin.
Regardless of the killer’s motive, however, the lack of protection for Thompson has left security experts in shock.
Charlie Carroll, CEO of the security firm ASET Corporation, told the Daily Beast that the slaying was “completely preventable.”
“We’re living in a world where people are extremely disgruntled,” he said. “When people lose trust in the system, you start seeing more kidnappings and assassinations because they feel like they have to take matters into their own hands.”
Carroll said these societal trends—paired with Thompson’s job at the helm of the country’s largest health insurer—meant that he should have been bodyguards protecting him while he was in transit to a high-profile investors meeting away from his Minnesota home.
“There’s no reason in the world that a CEO like Brian Thompson didn’t have a serious security team,” he said. “If I were there, I would’ve gone outside to survey the area for anything suspicious before letting him walk out. This was a $100 million mistake, if not more, for United Healthcare.”
