Killer 'left shocking message on bullets' after major health insurance CEO assassinated on New York street
A health insurance boss over in the US has been assassinated on a New York City street after an unidentified man shot him outside his hotel.
50-year-old Brian Thompson was shot at around 6:45am local time on Wednesday (4 December), with police calling the killing a 'brazen, targeted attack'.
Thompson was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, an American health insurance arm of the UnitedHealthGroup company.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the gunman seemed to have been 'lying in wait for several minutes' for Thompson before he spotted his target and opened fire, adding that this 'does not appear to be a random act of violence'.
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Police said that a lot of people walked by the shooter and that Thompson was hit at least once in the back and once in the calf, he was then taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The suspected shooter, who had a hood on and a mask covering a portion of his face, fled the scene by running down an alleyway and then riding a bike into Central Park.
Police said that a motive had not yet been established, but ABC News reports that police sources told them messages had been written on the casings of the bullets fired by the gunman.
They say shell casings recovered from the scene had the words 'deny', 'defend' and 'depose', though what precisely this means and why the shooter put those messages onto the shots they fired is as yet unclear.
While security footage allowed investigators to piece together the shooter's movements leading up to the killing and the initial movements of their escape, they lost track of the gunman after they entered Central Park.
Footage of the assassination showed the gunman waiting for Thompson before approaching the 50-year-old from behind and firing several shots with a handgun, at one point the shooter appeared to pause to clear a gun jam.
Joseph Kenny, NYPD's chief of detectives, said: "From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly."
Police are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that could lead to an arrest or conviction.
Thompson's wife Paulette said that 'there were some people that had been threatening him', though the police chief in the area of Minnesota where they lived said they had not received reports of threats made against the 50-year-old.
The investigation also found a mobile phone abandoned in the alleyway the gunman fled down.
While the assassin escaped on an e-bike into Central Park, a spokesperson for Lyft later announced that police informed them it wasn't from their CitiBike program.
The investigation continues.
Topics: Business, Crime, New York, US News, Luigi Mangione
Joe Harker