Brian Thompson, boss of UnitedHealthcare, the leading health insurer in the United States, was shot dead Wednesday morning in the center of Manhattan in New York, local media reported, citing a targeted assassination and a suspect fleeing on a bicycle.
The 50-year-old was shot around 7 a.m. (12:00 GMT) near a hotel in central Manhattan and died on arrival at the hospital, according to Pix 11 New York television.. The New York Times and CNBC television raise, citing anonymous sources, the possibility that the victim was targeted, killed by one or more shots from a firearm with a silencer.
Financial conference interrupted
An NYPD spokesperson simply confirmed shots fired targeting a person in this business district of the financial and cultural capital of the United States. According to Pix 11, UnitedHealth Group had been holding a financial conference for its investors in a Manhattan hotel for 8 hours, a meeting which had to be interrupted by the group’s big boss Andrew Witty who spoke of a “situation […] very serious.”
Brian Thompson had been part of the parent company UnitedHealth Group for twenty years and headed its health branch which insures 51 million people since 2021.
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