(Bloomberg) -- The words “delay” and “depose” were written on a shell casing and a live round recovered in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, where UnitedHealth Group Inc. insurance chief Brian Thompson was fatally shot on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
The inscriptions loosely echo the book title Delay, Deny, Defend, which describes tactics allegedly used by insurers to deny claims. Law enforcement officials may look at whether it suggests a potential motive — anger against health insurers.
“That is really unusual,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former New York Police Department sergeant who’s now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “I have never seen it, and I spent a long time working investigations.”
The manhunt for the shooter has entered its second day. The New York Police Department on Thursday released a series of photos of the suspect and appealed to the public for help in identifying the person, offering $10,000 for tips. The police executed a search warrant on a hostel on the Upper West Side on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The hunt didn’t lead to any new evidence of the whereabouts of the suspect, but it yielded additional photos of the person, the person said.
Thompson, 50, was shot in the back and leg around 6:45 a.m. outside of the New York Hilton Midtown, where the largest US health insurer was hosting its investor day. The shooting — captured on security video — showed the attacker waiting for Thompson upon his arrival at the hotel. The perpetrator approached the executive from behind and shot him multiple times before leaving by foot and then riding an electric bike toward Central Park. A cellphone was recovered nearby as well as the casings.
UnitedHealth was among a group of companies slammed in a Senate report earlier this year for using automated tools to increase claim denials. While the words could suggest that the shooting might be motivated by some kind of insurance denial, investigators also have to consider the words on the shell casing may be a distraction designed to divert from the true motive, Giacalone said.
“They are going to take everything seriously but have to have an open mind that this could be a potential ruse,” he said.
The shooting ignited a manhunt across the city that the NYPD said involved drones, canines and an extensive police deployment in Manhattan. Authorities were attempting to use the GPS tracking technology to follow the bike they believe the suspect used.
Thompson, who had two sons, went by the nickname “BT.” A 20-year veteran of UnitedHealth, he was one of the company’s most senior executives and regularly presented at investor events and on earnings calls. The insurance unit he oversaw is expected to bring in $280 billion in revenue this year, and is the country’s largest health insurer.
In 2021, he took over as CEO of the UnitedHealthcare insurance division after working in finance positions across the business. A certified public accountant, Thompson graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in business in 1997. He worked at PwC in the Twin Cities before joining UnitedHealth.
On social media, the reaction to the shooting was harsh. Some users on X, formerly Twitter, applauded the slaying, pointing to insurance claims denials and United’s role in America’s “broken health-care system.” There were similar sentiments on sites like Reddit and TikTok.
--With assistance from Nacha Cattan and Madison Muller.
(Updates with search warrant in fourth paragraph.)
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