GhLinks Media
A man is in custody on Monday morning in connection with the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The man is being questioned in Pennsylvania, per ABC. The man, being called a person of interest, was nabbed in Altoona, PA, and was using a fake ID, sourced told The New York Post.
The national manhunt was underway since last week when it was revealed by police that they believed that the suspect in the case had fled New York after fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Bryan Thompson on a Manhattan street in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Thompson was outside the hilton Hotel on Sixth Ave. when he was approached by a masked man with a gun. The man shot him and fled.
The man took a bike to Central Park, ditched his backpack, and headed for an uptown bus station near the George Washington Bridge.
He was seen entering the building but not leaving it, leaving officers to believe he had left the city.
After he was shot, Thompson was rushed to Mr. Sinai Hospital and was pronounced dead. He leaves behind a wife, Paulette, and two children, whose home was targeted with a bomb threat in the hours after Thompson’s shooting.
His wife said that there had been recent threats surrounding her husband due to his work. UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest private insurer.
“There had been some threats,” she said. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Newly sworn-in NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that it was a targeted attack, saying that “many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target.” There was a $10,000 reward offered by the NYPD and Crimestoppers while the FBI offered $50,000.
Police recovered bullet casings on the scene emblazoned with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend,” which could indicate that the motive behind the attack had something to do with healthcare and Thompson’s role as the CEO. The words come from a book title that takes aim at American health-care, a monolithic industry that Americans rely on for life-saving care and everything else.
The shooter, was arrived in the city on November 24, was barely seen on surveillance footage without his face covered.
The only instance his face was seen was when he was flirting with a woman who worked at the hostel where he was staying and lowered his face mask. He paid in cash for everything and used a fake ID.
In the aftermath of the shooting, there was an outcry on social media against the insurance industry, with people complaining about UnitedHealthcare’s policies of denying what they call “unnecessary coverage.”
