According to reports, Brian Thompson, the head of UnitedHealth’s insurance branch, was shot dead early Wednesday outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown.
Authorities suggest the attack was premeditated. Thompson had arrived around 6:45 a.m. for a conference when a gunman, masked and waiting, ambushed him near Sixth Avenue. The shooter fired multiple shots before fleeing on a bicycle. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, performing CPR, but Thompson could not be saved and was later declared dead from a chest wound.
A security camera image captured the hooded assailant as he raised a firearm outside the upscale hotel on West 54th and Sixth Avenue. Another image shows the suspected shooter, wearing a backpack, cycling away. During a press conference, Mayor Eric Adams emphasized to New Yorkers that the shooting was “a targeted murder.” “It seemed to have been clearly targeted by an individual, and we will apprehend that individual.”
UnitedHealth Cancels Conference Amid CEO’s Tragic Killing
Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, confirmed that the company’s Investor Day conference was unexpectedly canceled due to “a very serious medical situation” involving a team member. Authorities have yet to announce any arrests, and the investigation remains active. The suspect is described as a white male dressed in a coat, a black face mask, and black-and-white sneakers, carrying a gray backpack.
Sources claim that the suspect, a masked man, was not a registered guest at the Hilton and that his presence there remains unexplained. Upon spotting Thompson from a distance, he opened fire, striking the CEO multiple times before fleeing through Ziegfeld Alley. Police say he made his escape on a bicycle. Thompson, a 20-year veteran of UnitedHealth, became CEO in 2021 and was based at the company’s Minnetonka, Minnesota headquarters, per his LinkedIn profile.
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