The wife of the slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has revealed that her husband received “some threats” before his shocking Manhattan murder on Wednesday morning.
Those threats were regarding a supposed “lack of coverage,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News. That appears to be a reference to disgruntled UnitedHealthcare users who were possibly denied access to claims.
“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.”
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Those comments provide a possible motive for the early-morning slaying of the 50-year-old executive, who police say was shot in the back by an assassin outside of the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan.
The New York Times, citing a police source, reported that Thompson had “recently received several threats.” The paper added that executives at “health care companies often receive threats because the nature of their work.”
Cops said the alleged assassin had been “lying in wait” for Thompson to approach the hotel, where he was set to speak at an investors meeting.
The gunman, who concealed his face with a black facemask, escaped on an e-bike and remained at large by the early afternoon. Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the gunman’s arrest and have released security footage of the shooting.
“It appears as though this was a targeted murder,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
The city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said detectives had reached that conclusion partially because security cameras captured the gunman ignoring other pedestrians before opening fire at the first sight of Thompson. No bystanders were injured by the gunfire, which Tisch said struck Thompson’s back and calf.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said.
Paulette told NBC that she was unable to give a “thoughtful response” to her husband’s murder because she’d “just found this out” and was “trying to console” the couple’s two children.
Thompson lived in a suburb of Minneapolis, where UnitedHealthcare is based. Police said he arrived in New York on Monday and did not have a security detail with him.
Elena Reveiz, Thompson’s sister-in-law, told the Times that the slain executive “was a good person” and father to his children. She said she was “so sad” by his murder and that she was already traveling to be with Paulette.
In Midtown, meanwhile, Adams insisted that New Yorkers and tourists should continue to go about their day as usual. He said the scheduled lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center—mere blocks away—will still go on as planned Wednesday night.
The UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, is the largest private health insurance provider in the world. It began its investor meeting at 8 a.m. but brought it to a halt a little over an hour later.
“We’re dealing with a very serious medical situation” Andrew Witty, who is chief executive of the parent company, told investors before abruptly halting the event.
As news spread of Thompson’s death at a New York hospital, tributes to the executive—a graduate of the University of Iowa who worked at UnitedHealthcare for more than 20 years—came pouring in from officials in Minnesota.
“This is a horrifying and shocking act of violence,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “My thoughts are with Brian Thompson’s family and loved ones and all those working at United Healthcare in Minnesota.”
