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Detectives in New York are investigating the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on bullet casings left at the scene of the slaying of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson, according to a person familiar with the case.
While the search for the killer began on the second day, New York City Police Department posted photos on X Thursday morning of a person wanted for questioning in the murder. The NYPD, which is still looking for a motive for the shooting, said “all indications are that this was a premeditated, targeted attack.”
In photos released online by the NYPD in an appeal to the public for any information related to the case, a man in a hoodie can be seen smiling behind a counter.
Police believe the words written on the bullet casings may be a nod to Jay Feinman’s 2010 book about the insurance industry, Delay, deny, defendsaid a person familiar with the case. The book talks about how large health insurance companies avoid paying claims. Feinman, a professor at Rutgers Law School, declined to comment.
Assassination of Thompson, a leader based in Minnesota UnitedHealthcareAn insurance unit in front of the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning stunned New Yorkers.
Three shell casings were left at the scene along with three live bullets, the person added.
CCTV footage of the incident shows a masked man wearing a hooded jacket firing several shots from a 9mm pistol fitted with a silencer before fleeing the scene.
Detectives do not believe the man was a professional killer, but they think he was skilled with firearms as CCTV footage shows his gun jamming and him being able to quickly remove the malfunction.
The use of a silencer, the possession of which is illegal in New York state, suggests the killer may have traveled out of state, the person added.
Police were called to the scene just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, where they found Thompson unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at nearby Mount Sinai Hospital.
The attacker, who fled the scene on an e-bike towards Central Park, where he was last seen later Wednesday morning, remains at large.
At a news conference Wednesday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the investigation will look into “everything” to determine the killer’s motive.
“We’re looking at his social media, we’re interviewing employees, we’re interviewing family members, we’re going to talk to police in Minnesota,” Kenny said.
Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News in a phone interview Wednesday that “there have been some threats” against him, adding that they may have been about a “lack of coverage,” but she did not know the exact details.
“I only know that he said that there were some people who threatened him,” she added.
UnitedHealth Group is the fourth-largest publicly traded company in the US by sales, and its UnitedHealthcare insurance division, which Thompson led, accounted for about three-quarters of its $371.6 billion in 2023 sales.
The healthcare group has been the subject of an ongoing Justice Department antitrust investigation.
In April, lawmakers called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate UnitedHealth executives, including Thompson and Group CEO Andrew Witty, over stock sales that came before the report of the DoJ investigation, which hurt UnitedHealth’s share price.
A massive cyberattack also rocked UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare division for months this year, costing $1.6 billion and potentially exposing the data of one in three Americans.
Additional reporting by Josephine Cumbo
