The cold-blooded killing of Brian Thompson was not the first time UnitedHealthcare has been at the center of a high-profile murder.
A company employee infamously filmed himself executing a Virginia reporter and her cameraman live on air as they conducted an interview in August 2015.
Vester Lee Flanagan II committed suicide after gunning down reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward as they worked for CBS affiliate WDBJ-TV in Roanoke.
Video of the terrifying incident ran on the station’s morning news program, capturing the sound of at least eight gunshots, then screams, and briefly showed Flanagan, 41, holding a gun.
Ward, 27, and Parker, 24, were declared dead at the scene.
The woman they were interviewing, Vicki Gardner, survived with a bullet wound to her back.
Flanagan had been fired from the news outlet in 2013 for poor performance and disruptive behavior.
He later took a position at a UnitedHealthcare call center in Roanoke, where he worked until November 2014.
While there, Flanagan was accused of grabbing a female employee’s shoulder and aggressively telling her to never talk to him again, according to reports at the time. It’s unclear why he eventually quit the gig.
Flanagan, who posted a video of the murders to his Twitter account, killed himself during a car chase with police.
Nearly six years later, Brian Thompson became CEO of UnitedHealthcare Group.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down on Dec. 4 as he was approaching an investor event at the Hilton Midtown without any security detail.
Following a days-long manhunt, Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old computer engineer from a well-off Maryland family, was arrested in Altoona, Pa. on Monday, and charged with second-degree murder in Thompson’s death.
Georgia Worrell
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