Search continues for the person who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO

The search continues for the person who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a Manhattan hotel yesterday. Police have said it was a target, pre-planned attack.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The suspected killer of United Healthcare’s CEO remains at large one day after Brian Thompson was shot outside a hotel in New York City. Authorities have said the shooting was a targeted attack against Thompson, who led the largest health insurer in the U.S. NPR’s Maria Aspan joins us now from New York with more details. Hi, Maria.

MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so this manhunt – I mean, it’s been going on for more than a day at this point. What is the latest?

ASPAN: So at this point, we know a little bit more about what the alleged gunman looks like and what his potential motivations might have been. The NYPD released a couple of photos that show more of the suspect’s face. In those two, he’s unmasked, and one of the photos shows him smiling. He’s also wearing a different jacket and apparently a different backpack than he was shown pictured on the morning of the shooting. And police were also at a hostel where he may have stayed in the days beforehand.

CHANG: OK, tell us more. What else has come out of the investigation so far?

ASPAN: So the police also said that several shell casings used in the attack had some words written on them, words including deny and defend. And those words have been seen as a possible reference to how big insurance companies, including United Healthcare, deny claims, and they may point to a motivation for the shooter. And, again, police have said this was a premeditated, targeted attack on Thompson, who did run the largest health insurer in the country.

CHANG: Well, how much do we know about the gunman’s motives at this point?

ASPAN: Not much past rampant speculation. And we should say that United Healthcare has said it’s working with the police, but it hasn’t really commented much further. Some of the photos and surveillance footage of the shooting has led to some speculation that the killer was professional. He handled his gun comfortably, even when it appeared to jam, and he seemed calm and cold-blooded in the way that he shot Thompson from behind several times.

But I did talk to some security experts that reviewed the video and who are skeptical that this was a professional hit. For example, the gunman was also caught on camera at Starbucks before going to the hotel where he shot Thompson. And here’s Philip Klein, who runs a security company in Texas.

PHILIP KLEIN: Everybody says, oh, he’s a professional hitter. I don’t think so. Who goes and gets coffee in the morning before you’re fixing to have a major – I mean, nobody does that.

ASPAN: Klein’s company provides bodyguard services to corporate executives and worked with Thompson in the past. And Klein told me that of all the businesses his bodyguards work with, health care executives get some of the most threats.

CHANG: How interesting. Well, going back to motive, I mean, do we have any evidence beyond those words inscribed on the bullets that the gunman was motivated by anger against Thompson’s company?

ASPAN: It has been reported that Thompson has received threats in the past, although, again, there’s a lot of speculation. We’ve also seen a huge outpouring of anger and frustration about United Healthcare specifically in the past day. Many on social media are making jokes or going so far as to celebrate this killing.

However awful this rhetoric, it shows some real frustration with health care in the United States. It’s the most expensive in the developed world, and it has some of the worst outcomes. And United Healthcare and its parent company, United Health, are the biggest player in this system. They make a lot of money off of it. United Health made more than $371 billion in revenue last year. So whatever we end up finding out about the shooter’s motives, the reaction to his actions are highlighting many huge problems facing both health care companies and all of us.

CHANG: That is NPR’s Maria Aspan in New York. Thank you, Maria.

ASPAN: Thank you.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.