Who is Brian Thompson? Everything we know about the UnitedHealthcare CEO and his murder in New York City
Luigi Mangione allegedly kept a notebook that laid out his plot to ‘wack’ Thompson at his ‘parasitic bean-counter convention’ in Manhattan
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Brian Thompson was laid to rest at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on Monday.
That same day, Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with murder in connection to the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death.
The 26-year-old suspect was taken into custody in Altoona and is now being held without bond in Pennsylvania as he faces charges in two states. Mangione appeared for a hearing on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where he fought extradition to New York to face charges.
Ten days before the exec was shot dead outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, the suspected shooter was believed to have traveled to New York City on a Greyhound bus. Five days after the shooting, Mangione was in handcuffs.
Here’s everything we know so far in the build up and aftermath of the fatal attack on the 50-year-old insurance CEO:
Thompson shot in ‘premeditated attack’
The unidentified shooter had been hiding behind a car outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan for about five minutes when Thompson exited, police said. The suspect was spotted at a nearby Starbucks on West 56th Street and 6th Avenue shortly before the shooting.
The shooter, who was wearing a mask, approached Thompson from behind and shot him in the right calf and back at 6:46 a.m. Video of the incident shows the shooter calmly walking up behind Thompson before shooting him, then calmly crossing the street. The footage also showed a bystander running away as the suspect opened fire.
“The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again,” New York Police Department’s Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
The shooting was a “premeditated, pre-planned targeted attack,” police said late on the morning of December 4. Thompson appeared unaware he was in danger and had no security detail near him, Kenny told reporters.
Thompson was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes later.
Police described the shooter as a white man wearing a black hoodie and black pants with a gray backpack. Police announced on December 6 they found what appears to be that same backpack in Central Park.
The shooter fled the scene through an alleyway on an e-bike. He biked via Sixth Avenue to Central Park. Soon afterward, security footage shows the suspect entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said. However, they did not find footage of him leaving, indicating he had left the city on a bus.
Thompson was in the city to speak at the UnitedHealth Group’s annual Investor Conference the day of his death.
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the company said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him.”
New clues emerged
On December 5, police released images of the suspect with his mask pulled down. The photos came from a surveillance video at the New York City hostel where the suspect was staying.
On the afternoon of December 6, new clues emerged as police continued to piece together information regarding the suspected assailant’s whereabouts before the CEO was fatally shot.
The armed suspect is reported to have traveled via Greyhound bus to New York 10 days before the shooting unfolded, according to law enforcement sources who spoke to CNN.
Police say he arrived in New York City on November 24 after jumping on a bus departing from Atlanta.
On the day he arrived in New York City, he was captured on surveillance video stepping off the bus at around 9 p.m. and spotted walking through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, said law enforcement sources.
He then checked into an Upper West Side hostel, left on November 29, and then used a fake New Jersey ID to check back in on November 30.
While in the hostel, he slept in a multi-person room with two other men and wore a mask for the majority of his stay, according to CNN. His whereabouts from November 30 to Wednesday morning are still unclear.
Both Greyhound and the hostel’s parent company, Hostelling International USA, told ABC News in a statement that they are “fully cooperating with the NYPD” but cannot comment further due to the active investigation.
Authorities found three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings, as well as a cell phone, at the scene of the shooting. They also recovered a candy wrapper and water bottle believed to belong to the suspect, according to ABC News.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN on December 6 that investigators had a “huge amount of evidence” in their search, including DNA evidence, fingerprints and a “massive camera canvass” of the suspect’s movements.
The bullet casings police found at the scene had the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” written on them.
A 2020 book by Jay Feinman about the insurance industry bears a similar title: Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. The book describes itself as an “expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back”. Feinman did not comment when contacted by The Independent.
At the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying a 262-page manifesto, a ghost gun, silencer and false ID cards, police said. He also had a spiral notebook which laid out his plot to “wack” Thompson at his “parasitic bean-counter convention”, according to The New York Times.
Wife reveals Thompson received threats as police search for motive
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News in the hours after the shooting that her husband had been receiving threats. UnitedHealth Group was aware of concerning threats against its executives, CNN reported.
"There had been some threats," she told the outlet. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [health insurance] coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Family and leaders mourn CEO
Family, friends and business leaders gathered for Thompson’s private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on Monday – the same day his suspected shooter was arrested in Pennsylvania.
Over a dozen state troopers, 100 cars and two dozen black SUV’s lined the Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, as security measures were put in place for mourners, according to Fox News. The news outlet reported that a sniper was spotted on the church roof and a security code was needed to get into the service.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Thompson’s sister Elena Reveiz told The New York Times that her brother was a “good person, and I am so sad.”
“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” Thompson’s family said in a statement to Minnesota news outlet KARE. “We appreciate your condolences and request complete privacy as our family moves through this difficult time,” the statement continued.
Thompson is a father of two. Before taking the CEO job in 2021, he worked as the company’s head of government programs. As CEO, Thompson worked out of UnitedHealthcare’s offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Fake bomb threats were made against two homes, one owned by Thompson and the other owned by his wife, shortly after he was shot.
The two homes, which are less than a mile apart in Maple Grove, Minnesota, were targeted on Wednesday evening, The Minnesota Star-Tribune reported. The threat was sent via e-mail to multiple people who then notified police. Thompson and his wife had been living in separate homes in Maple Grove for years, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The threats were not credible and considered an instance of “swatting,” police said.
“No devices or suspicious items were located during the investigation,” a Maple Grove police spokesperson said in a statement. ”The case is considered an active investigation, while the incident appears to be a hoax.”
Thompson kept a low profile with little public name recognition, the Associated Press reported.
Thompson was also named in a lawsuit filed by a Florida pension fund earlier this year accusing UnitedHealth of hiding an antitrust investigation by the Justice Department from shareholders while insiders sold stock, according to the Journal. Thompson had not answered the claims in court before the shooting on December 4.
Under his leadership, UnitedHealthcare provided coverage to more than 49 million people, making it the largest insurance company in the US. The network includes 1.3 million physicians and care professionals across nearly 7,000 facilities.
Under Thompson, the company made $74 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter, earning the title of the largest subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. Thompson made $10.2 million annually and was one of the company’s highest-paid employees.