Chilling footage of the slaying of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson in front of a Manhattan hotel emerged Wednesday afternoon.
The clip, captured by a security camera, showed the assassin open fire at the 50-year-old insurance executive at close range after he approached Thompson from behind on a sidewalk outside the Midtown Hilton.
Thompson collapsed to the ground after two shots—and briefly turned to face his killer—before he appeared to go fully prone after three. The gunman then walked toward the fallen Thompson and appeared to attempt to fire at least one more shot in his direction as he laid helplessly on the sidewalk.
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A bystander was mere feet away from the gunman—who remains at large—when shots first rang out at 6:46 a.m. That person fled to behind the gunman, who appeared unfazed by the bystander’s presence and the passing of cars to his left.
The unidentified assailant appeared to be clad in all black in the clip, including his hoodie, pants, and gloves. Police said the gunman also wore a black mask and escaped by running through an alley and hopping on an e-bike before he disappeared into the nearby Central Park.
Footage showed the gunman fire at Thompson, who appeared to be wearing a blue dress jacket, at least three times in the span of 12 seconds. After each shot, the man pulled back his pistol’s slide, suggesting it was a single-action handgun.
The methodical shooting was a “targeted attack,” officials said, perhaps because of Thompson’s position at the helm of the world’s largest private health insurance company.
Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News that her husband had been receiving threats related to his position—something that was corroborated by a police source to The New York Times.
“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.”
Aside from the dark clothes he wore, no other information has been publicly released by cops about Thompson’s anonymous killer. The NYPD is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of the gunman.
New York’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said in a news conference that the assassin had been “lying in wait” for Thompson to approach the Hilton, where he was set to speak at an investors meeting later that morning.
Tisch pointed out that the gunman ignored other pedestrians on the sidewalk but chose to open fire at Thompson. There were no other injuries in the incident.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said.
Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, said the gunfire erupted shortly after Thompson exited a hotel across the street from the Hilton. He said Thompson had no security detail.
Thompson, a father of two, lived in a suburb of Minneapolis. He worked at UnitedHealthcare, which is based in Minnesota, for over 20 years and was recently estimated to have a net worth around $43 million.
