The CEO of the largest US health insurance company was shot dead early Wednesday in a brazen attack outside a mid-town hotel in New York.
Brian Thompson, who heads UnitedHealthcare (UHC), was killed in what officials said was a “targeted attack” and the masked assailant escaped on a bicycle.
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The killing happened as the city was flooded by tourists as it goes into the holiday season with the lighting of the iconic Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Centre near the site of the shooting set a few hours later.
To reassure visitors, Mayor Eric Adams said: “We want to be clear to New Yorkers that this does not appear to be a random act of violence”.
Concern over crime – 62 per cent of Americans expressed fears in a survey – was a factor in the presidential election.
Reports said that the assailant was pacing the platform outside the Hilton hotel and shot Thompson from about three metres away. The CEO was walking to the hotel where his company was to hold an investors’ conference.
In 2021, Thompson, 50, took over UHC, which had a revenue of $281 billion last year, and provides private health insurance as well as offering plans under the government programmes for seniors and the poor.
