Bullets used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO had words written on them, law enforcement official says
Bullets used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO had words written on them, law enforcement official says
Brian Thompson, 50, was killed in a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack,” police said.
Summary
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in a premeditated attack outside the New York Hilton Midtown before speaking at an investor conference.
The gunman, still at large, fired multiple times, leaving shell casings marked with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive. His wife confirmed prior threats against him.
Analysts speculate a possible vendetta tied to his company. The case raises questions about executive security, as Thompson lacked personal protection despite known risks.
"The motive remains unclear" is one of those things that, as a journalist, you know you have to write because it is absolutely the truth, but you hate yourself for every letter of every word because you know how fucking stupid it sounds given the circumstances.
"I mean, there are millions of people with motive. Which one in particular we will hopefully never know"
I feel like this is going to end like Murder on the Orient Express, where...
Tap for spoiler
... it turns out that literally everyone took turns shooting him.
Deny that you know or even saw them. Defend them if they do get caught, through protest, fundraising, bail, etc. Depose those who put them in jail if they are sentenced.
Unless it turns out he was murdered by, for example, an irate shareholder who didn't make the money he wanted to make.
There is more than one reason he could have been murdered.
Absolutely, hence why they do have to say that the motive is unclear. While we all have strong theories about why this happened, there are plenty of other possibilities that have to be considered. Could have been taken out by his family for insurance money, could have been a business rival, the guy might have gotten in shit with the mob. At this point they just don't know.
For some very weird reason it never crossed my mind, and I really do not know why, that I could invest in a huge healthcare corporation whose target it is to provide as little healthcare as possible. But your comment made me think about that that is possible to do.
Nah, that's a cop out. They could absolutely find somebody speculating on the motive to quote if they wanted to.
Yeah, just put a random tweet in like they usually do
"The motive remains unclear"
Was it him that got denied, or was it a recently deceased family member?
There's several options.
That seems like terrible wording. Why not just say the motive is unconfirmed with the suspect if that's what's needed to state it as fact?
"We do not know why" haha, take a wild guess, please!
It's unclear because there's a few different reasons somebody would want this man dead
They probably don't know which of the hundreds of thousands cases of killing and suffering were actually the cause.
As of about a month ago there had been ~320 murders in NYC this year.
Yet this single one has captured the media's attention nationwide and cops seem to be heavily focused on this one.
Because modern society at pretty much every institutional level sees the wealthy and powerful as not just more important than us, but they dont even see us. Hell, compare this to school shootings that only make local news now.
Historically, societies like this end in an incredibly brutal fashion. And until the wealthy and powerful really can build terminator style robot armies...
The masses are always going to win.
It's kind of the natural consequences of hyper concentration of a finite and essential resource. People rarely sit around and starve voluntarily, and once the majority are starving, people start acting like a mob.
We see it day to day over minor stuff where people just refuse to follow societial norms. Everyday we're shown that rules don't really matter, and none of the people who matter are held accountable. If someone isn't physically stopped from doing something, they take that as permission. Hell, that was the defense of most 1/6ers.
The social contract was invalidated a long time ago, people are just now realizing it. And that's the only thing that really seperates us from animals.
Crashing out is gonna be the norm pretty fucking soon, I don't think we have 4 years or that trump will be able to hold society together.
There's a very high chance we're gonna live in some interesting times.
I think the biggest thing to emphasize - and you mentioned it but I think it bears repeating over and over - is that when the system fails to enforce justice, people will seek justice themselves. This is the social contract you mentioned. I think we should expect more of this until the system is reformed and people like this do face justice within it.
"When peaceful disobedience doesn't work the people don't stop being disobedient, they stop being peaceful."
Not really.
Look up the origin of the FBI. Hoover was a low level clerk when he was handed the reins. He didn't have much of a budget but he did have the willingness to sit and do a lot of research.
When the time came to go after Emma Goldman the government had reams and reams of paper 'proving' how dangerous she was.
From now on, the CEOs will travel with security squads, and President Trump will authorize them to shoot to kill anyone who comes in fifty feet of the VIP.
This is more likely to be a one-off, like Gamestop.
Will you ever see Tesla Optimus aka Tesla Bot the same way again?
That's obviously the end goal Musk is going for.
But I'm by no means the first person who realized the only thing the masses have going for us is sheer overwhelming numbers, and the day the wealthy have robot soldiers we're fucked because by then they won't need our labor either.
We go from being individually expendable to the entirety of us being expendable.
It's gonna happen eventually, so we can't just keep alternating between neoliberals and fascists, regardless of which one is in charge when it happens, we're all still fucked when the wealthy and powerful don't need us.
There’s a very high chance we’re gonna live in some interesting times.
That was a well written post, but DAMN am I sick of living in interesting times!
I want boring times please for awhile. BORING times.
I hope this is a start and that it will continue. They have left no other alternative
Dude. This event is like a page out of Batman. If you don't think this is news, I can't imagine what you think is.
People are interested in it (see Lemmy as an example), and news outlets publish stuff that gets clicks. What's so hard to believe about that?
The media is treating it like a national tragedy, Walz was giving his condolences for some reason, and so are lots of other politicians.
It's like when those billionaires all died in that submarine and the powerful people that run the media and politics treated it as some huge event and spent crazy money investigating.
They acted like it's was 9/11, because to them $'s are what matters, so when one person with the same amount of $ as 100,000 people, they act like 100,000 average people die.
Do you not see that? The difference between how a wealthy person and a poor person are treated?
America used to have wealth worship, people still to some extent go to the Biltmore mansion to marvel at how nice robber barons lived centuries ago, or binge watch Downtown Abbey. But nowadays the vast amount of people upon hearing something bad happened to a billionaire, will at best say they dont give a fuck.
The contrast between what people are saying, and what they're told by their leaders and the media isn't jivving. And it's obvious.
Look at history...
When societies are at the stage we are now, very very few bare any resemblance to that in just a decade or two. For better or worse, shit is likely to substantially change soon.
Edit:
To put it as simple as possible, the masses are told implicitly every day they don't matter and only the wealthy do. Eventually people will start acting like their lives really don't matter.
Which is bad for everyone, and has been happening for a while now. We're just approaching the tipping point where "crashing out" is the majority opinion
The case raises questions about executive security
Thankfully it doesn't raise any questions about the place of billionaire CEOs of companies making life and death decisions for the general populace for the sake of their overflowing pocket book. Boy would that be awkward.
The case raises questions about executive security
Weird. I don't have any questions about that.
Just FYI - he was worth about $43 million. https://blackstarnews.com/brian-thompson-net-worth/
Just curious: do you know any life or death decision he personally made that wasn't the result of hundreds of bean counters crafting policy over many years? I find it hard to believe the ceo rubber stamped any decision like that, or even that he was aware of the details of any individual case.
The CEO is ultimately responsible for the actions of the company. That's literally their job. They set policy, direction and strategy, and if we're to listen to what CEOs say they do,they also set the tone, attitude and energy of the company.
So unless the denials that resulted in death were done in opposition to corporate policy, the CEO is responsible for them.
Additionally, there was literally nothing stopping him from pushing a company policy of, as a thought, approving all claims involving minors, changing approval standards to only deny when the treatment was unequivocally unnecessary after a verbal consultation between the patients doctor and the insurance review doctor, and moving the balance of claim review to fraud investigation to recoup money after instead of denying upfront.
Decisions that led to his company having the worst denial rate nationwide and the decision to wholly adopt an AI system that is known to have a 90% error rate to achieve it. Overflowing profits and bonuses sank right in to his pockets for his business acumen, and the key thing you do to earn that CEO payday is sign off on everything and be culpable when the shit hits the fan.
that's the thing about being the chief, the buck stops there.
CEOs of these companies will say things along the lines of find a way to deny an extra X% of claims this year, our profits are down!
Edit: and I wouldn't be surprised if they said something like or find a reason to deny that will get overturned if looked at further but maybe they won't fight back hard enough.
I finally understand what certain people mean when they talk about "good guys with guns".
This was always the dream, the picture everyone tried to paint. Grabbing your powderhorn, Putting on your tricorne hat, and defending liberty against tyranny, and all that. It just never really actually happened.
I sure hope nobody copies this behavior of retribution against the billionaire class which is responsible for almost all of the worlds suffering.
Thoughts and Prayering so hard right now.
A man can hope. Let's pray.
I sure hope they do
I sure hope they do
I sure hope the internet isn't a reasonable indicator of how the general public feel about CEOs and billionaires. There are in fact many fantastic CEOs and billionaires who donate and focus their time and money and corporations to benefit communities. There's more than a reasonable argument that without billionaires, the planet would be suffering more.
This movement of hating on the mega wealthy is misguided. It's not like billionaires are actually hoarding wealth - they don't have billions stuffed under their bed. They own companies and stock in companies that are worth money. The money is used to create or buy other companies, to invest in other companies, to create new opportunities, to create jobs.
The Board of Directors are decreasing overhead and increasing profit margins to satisfy Wall Street's hunger. This is due to changing government regulations, mostly lead by Republicans. The Republicans want limited government, the dismantling of federal programs, an increase in private corporations, and greater opportunities for the wealthy to generate income off Wall Street speculation.
This act should be condemned and the murderer should be sent to prison.
Murdering one person isn't going to accomplish anything. Murdering all the CEOs isn't going to accomplish anything. It may feel good to you that this person's family has lost someone they love in retribution for all the families who have lost the people they love. But it's not going to prevent anyone else from dying.
Hopefully, after the crowd chills out from seething at the teeth, we can get back to discussing how fucked our health care system is. Oh, sorry - we just elected someone who explicitly says he's going to make health care worse and more expensive.
Maybe we should give a shit about our government and who we're voting for.
Maybe we should be shooting each other instead of these CEOs who present more as a symptom of the illness.Edit: I'm going to take that back. It's clear that people are just angry about anything and everything. It doesn't matter how or why or its relevance. It's not just the internet, clearly. This is how we ended up with another Trump administration. Irrationality and fear are all that matter. Science, facts, context, intelligence, education; all passé. We are the mob standing by with pitchforks.
I don’t believe there is a single billionaire who is a good person.
What gives them the rights to amass such obscene wealth off of the backs of their workforce just to choose what charitable causes they want to spend their ill gotten gains on.
Furthermore, I take issue with the whole stock market and its need for perpetual growth at any cost.
I hope you just forgot the /s because wowzers is this one fuck of a take...
The billionaires aren't the problem?
I do get your point. It's bad to take joy in the pain of other people. That it is bad as a society that we celebrate the deaths of our fellows. I don't really want vigilante justice to become our norm--that's how gangs and cartels come to prominence. I'd much rather have institutions that do their damn jobs so the common person doesn't believe justice can only be found at the end of a gun. The billionaires keep voting/promoting to break those institutions though!
Sounds like you're making e/acc-like (effective altruism) arguments. Which basically is to make as much money as possible to use that money for positive change. It's very flawed, because 1) to make as much money as possible, you need to exploit workers, customers, or investors, and 2) it's authoritarian in nature. The wealthy are extremely out of touch with reality, and their priorities and ideal of what "positive change" is generally don't align with the populace, or what's needed most.
I don't think murdering CEOs is the answer, but I do hope the working class becomes more class conscious; the wealthy class sure is, and has never stopped waging class war.
If a billionaire was a good person, they wouldn't be billionaires any longer.
The French invented something to un-elect Fascists in a democratic manner
.ml username
corpo bootlicker
Huh?
You don't become ultra-wealthy without carelessly exploiting workers. We shouldn't need to rely on their benevolence. The fact some of the ultra-wealthy give away some of their wealth but remain ultra-wealthy is in itself an indictment of the system you're defending. It shouldn't be a choice. They shouldn't be able to gather that much wealth and it should instead be used to benefit other people without their concent.
A violent revolution may not be the answer, but certain things need to happen for the upper class and our government to recognize, in their own way since they can't seem to relate to the general public, that the people they represent and hold power over are not happy. Yes we vote in our officials, but due to the way the system has changed over the years, gerrymandering and gentrification has made minorities feel wildly unrepresented. Progressives feel wildly unrepresented because they honestly just want the best for everyone in the country while conservatives typically want to maintain the old ways (usually involving sexism or racism). Democrats have done nothing to appeal to the progressives. Republicans have broadened their appeal wildly to even feel desired by those that they truthfully aim to negatively impact. This has been through extreme lies and misinformation spread. Everyone has been talking about "nobody wants to work anymore," but nobody has been talking about "nobody wants to vote anymore." It's disgraceful that we call ourselves a democracy but around 50% of the entire voting populace feels they shouldn't vote because their vote doesn't matter, or are put into a position where they can't vote because of the state they live in.
I will never advocate for violence. I was not alive during the civil rights movements or the women's abolition movements, or the worker's rights movements. I know a lot of people had to die for the people that govern us to pass legislation to improve those conditions. Why do the average everyday Americans have to die in large numbers for legislation to be passed... even locally? I think a few people that have power over us or that govern us being killed is far better than more everyday Americans that lead the labor force. I don't want random, good CEOs to die. And I think the general public will agree. It's not like the CEO of Costco was being targeted.
Your argument is for one not being enough, in case you didn't realise.
oh my god could you be smoking pole any harder
average lemmy.ml take. the billionaires aren't gonna let you hit, go back to your algebra homework
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive.
Friggin Sherlock Holmes' over here.
The case raises questions about executive security
"We won't be pressured into changing the system we'll just protect the rich exploiters better"
Despite a fairly obvious motive in general before this news broke, and now confirmation it was because of their policies, they are doing zero soul searching or reexamination of why their policies became a motive
Thompson’s killing quickly sent shockwaves through the corporate world, with corporate security heads gathering in a conference call to Wednesday.
“Many of my colleagues today are sitting down with their executive protection team leaders, their security leadership teams, and re-evaluating what they are doing and not doing,” Dave Komendat, president of Seattle-based Komendat Risk Management Services
Who had neo-Pinkertons on their 2020s bingo?
Pinkerton's still exist but are under the Swedish firm Securitas 🔴🔴🔴.
After Hasbro sent the Pinkertons to get fucking MtG cards last year, this wouldn't be surprising
I am happy that they are scared
I mean they could stop hi fiving in the boardroom when their AI is denying care to people who have paid for insurance all of their lives.
I don't think murdering people in the street is a just act, though. Mainly because of same reason I didn't think the government should be killing people--the error rate is too high and someone innocent gets killed.
The Punisher would be a lot less cool of he left a trail of innocent people behind.
That said, when I saw this happen I immediately thought of the UniteHealth AI denying elderly care story I had read the day or morning before.
Healthcare boardrooms across the country have probably been celebrating the idea they can deny people like they've always done PLUS blame it on a computer, now. High five 🙏
Oops. Murder seems to be a side effect of evil.
yo
https://delaydenydefend.com/ It's a book reference.
Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims And What You Can Do About It
Nope, still a complete mystery. Why it could have been any motive at all. A mugging gone wrong, perhaps? The gun accidentally went off while the guy was cleaning it while he walked around?
WHY INSURANCE COMPANIES DON'T PAY CLAIMS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
That subtitle kinda hits different these days....
The thing about United Healthcare is that it has always been the very worst one of of our terrible for profit health insurance companies.
One bullet said "depose," not "delay."
It may not be a direct reference to the book, but I would just about bet that the author didn't come up with the bon mot from scratch.
"Depose" in particular is interesting. It could certainly be a broader social comment about a perceived ruling class, but it also has a specific meaning in the context of civil litigation. I would imagine that some glib corporate attorneys have used those exact three words in sequence, in connection with UHC and others: Deny the claim, defend the lawsuit, depose the patients, where "depose" means conduct a lengthy and expensive and stressful set of questions, done outside the courtroom and with very little off limits because it's expected the judge will rule on admissibility later. All of it wears out the claimant, who clearly needed the coverage and will almost by definition lack the same resources to pursue the lawsuit.
Because he was deposed without further delay.
Its simple all you clueless colombos. Just start investigating all denied claims where the person died at a result. Shouldn't take more than a decade or so to go though that list.
You misspelled century
You also need to include deaths due to delayed or inadequate treatment, and suicides related to medical debt
its all been discarded by now.
Shootings must be rare in NYC given how much attention this one is getting.
Um ackshually, NYC is doing better than many other places, at least as far as per-capita homicide statistics go, according to this list I pulled out of Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
Sort by "murder and nonnegligent manslaughter" and you find NYC way down on the list. St. Louis, Baltimore, and Detroit is on the top. NYC is not even the worst in the state anymore, Buffalo is worse.
Thoughts and deductibles to his family.
Sorry, thoughts are not in network with your health care plan.
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive.
Aye, that sure is a mystery for the ages. Maybe he cut somebody up in traffic?
Didn't return the shopping cart
Probably cyberbullied him back in the day.
There's a gulf of difference between jumping to an obvious conclusion and actually doing the investigative work to really answer the question. The police aren't dumb and are probably just as sure as the rest of us as to the motive that will be found. However, they still need to make that determination based on real evidence, especially if it's going to go to court. So, "it's unclear" until they have something which provides strong evidence of a motive.
Ya, I'd be putting all my chips on this being someone who was on the receiving end of a denied claim. But, you never know when it's going to end up being the guy failing to pay up to the Russian Mafia or some other situation which resulted in a targeted attack. I'm not going to defend all the actions of the police, but they do occasionally stop shooting kids long enough investigate crimes properly.
The police aren't dumb
What? Since when?
what's the phrase -I've never wished death upon a person but I've read some obituaries with great satisfaction?
That obituary might make a nice t-shirt.
The case raises questions about executive security,
Of course this is the lesson. Not that everyone hates you, your company, the business, etc. It's not our actions. We just need security.
Pretty soon they are going to need security droids like those in the movie Elysium. They are already working on that.
To those complaining this is news because this is a rich white CEO and shouldn't be. It's fascinating to me because it seems like vengeance. It seems like it was well planned. It seems like the killer may have had a personal beef with the insurance company. I don't usually follow things like this but I think insurance companies are genuinely evil. This one has my interest.
Imagine how interesting it would be if more copycats started killing evil rich people all around the world...
French Revolution vibes intensify...
I think its good for the same reason that I think extensive media focus on school shooting is bad.
authorities remain unclear about the motive
the authorities are fucking idiots
They know the motive, they just don't have enough proof to say it publicly. They like to keep things vague.
More likely too many motives that fit.
They know the motives but the lords above them tell them to shut up and say they don't know.
Insurance companies hate this one trick.
But no honestly, why are they acting like CEOs are fucking important?
Just parasites is all they are.
Apparently the board (?) still held the meeting the CEO was on his way to when he got got.
So... this isn't even a "trick" in that regard.
CEO gets paid to not show up to meetings.
More at 11?
Maybe?
That's because they're the real ruling class in this country.
I wonder if his death will be covered by insurance.
Delay, deny, defend?
LMAO. It's hilarious to me how basically nobody is mourning the death of this dude. Hopefully it is making other insurance leadership start to rethink their careers.
Or course. He's Ebaneezer Scrooge without the redemption arc.
Damn, he was really about sending a message 😬
Clarity in connection is a positive thing. Ambiguity breeds confusion.
Boy I hope no future healthcare CEO assassins copy this calling card, and I especially hope their bullet shells aren’t covered with the names of people killed by the CEO’s company denying them healthcare.
Not only would that encourage more copy cats, but it would really capture people’s attention and get them thinking about the issue. If the public starts considering crazy propaganda like how seeking maximum profit at the expense of widespread human suffering might not be life’s most noble pursuit, just imagine what could happen!
You think this is going to get people to think about the issue of our garbage health are system?
PFFFTLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Killing CEOs won't accomplish anything. They do what they do because the govenrment loosened regulations. You want better healthcare, you'll get more accomplished voting for a Democrat than killing CEOs. Americans don't really give a shit about anything other than the price of gas and eggs so here we are.
Every single billionaire has working class people in their direct employ. Just saying.
Many household objects can be used as weapons. Just saying.
Has anyone in law enforcement even done the first step here and put together a list of people who might have a reason to kill this guy? Lets get with the program here, cops.
The company already has a list. They can just look through their denied claims pile... That shouldn't be too hard.
... Oh wait, that list is millions of people long.
10% of the country is gonna be one hell of a perp walk.
Step 1) Find a list of every US citizen
Step 2) Copy
Step 3) Paste
"Thompson lacked personal protection despite known risks."
Oh. Oh ho ho. That is an interesting bit of information.
Not the lacking personal protection. That does surprise me, but not a lot.
What does surprise me is the "despite known risks."
Was he that arrogant? Or do they, the powerful, greedy, and heartless, fear the wrong things?
Interesting to consider. The primal instinct to fear for ones life drives the most basic of biology. Is it possible, that this class of individuals lacks that fear? Or is it that there is something that fear more?
I think we all know the answer to that, of course. They fear losing power and wealth. That's quite a vulnerability. They protect that wealth and power more than their own life. I feel like I've heard about consequences to that.
He was that arrogant, and the powerful and rich don't know actual fear at all until they meet a guy like the one this CEO met.
Man, it'd be a shame if his life insurance company dropped coverage for that.
The assassin was a pre-existing condition, a condition caused by his last workplace, clearly.
This is the part that keeps running through my mind.
The motherfucker ain't stupid. He knows that as the CEO of an insurance company he is bound to be hated by lots of people, and yet he chooses to go without Private Security? Bruh. All those fucking dollars, couldn't spare some to increase his chance of survival eh?
Did the almighty dollar cloud his thoughts so much he thought he couldn't die no more? He thought he was above the rules of the physical plane? Dude thought he was gonna re-sleeve like Altered Carbon
CEOs around the world scrambling to hire security.
CEOs of security companies are popping champagne bottles.
Plot twist. The shooter owns a high level personal security business and was just drumming up potential clients.
Omg, this news just keeps getting more interesting.
I’m not saying I support these actions, but omg I want to know more!
The headline screams of the emperor having no clothes.
This is some of the most compelling content we've gotten in ages, I just hope netflix doesn't cancel Season 2...
Can't wait to see how the next CEO ends up :D
nice.
Make money ruining the well being of families, eventually retribution will be had.
"it's personnel, bitch"
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive.
Ummmm, real solid police work here. Although motive might be hard to narrow down, its not like this was a popular CEO.
Was the CEO drinking? Might have brought it on himself.
Did you see what he was wearing? Was basically asking for it really.
drink more ovaltine
a n a l y s t s
Wow, an investigation. Was the victim white or rich. White, rich, and male, hurry get Sherlock Holmes.
This has vibes of something larger than someone unhappy with just UHC
Oh never mind - theory is that it's referencing this book: https://delaydenydefend.com/
Thoughts and tariffs
Since the US is headed for 4 years of a made-for-tv style society, I guess this slots right in.
...but not the feel-good, happy ending kind, rather the soul-crushing dystopian oppressed kind.
Something tells me that this might have not been a random incident.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
True, this hero was only able to murder one person with a gun, but that CEO was able to murder thousands with a pen
But sword beats paper. Buy one today!
pen is
hehe
🍽
Given the situation millions of Americans find themselves in, certainly someone was going to take lethal action. Say you have terminal cancer and our insurance made your life worse and shorter. What do you have to lose when your life is gone? From the other perspective, would you seriously betray a person that results in them getting a terminal illness? What do you think you would be risking? Imagine doing it to tens of thousands on a yearly basis. All it would take is to betray the wrong person.
Nice.
This is why the gioutine comments are cute, and yes, the system isn't working for nearly anyone...
But this is not the company I want to keep. The antivax liberal moms rallying with neo Nazis over masks should demonstrate there are boundaries to strange bedfellows.
Dude is a psycho killer.
psycho seems a bit much. I usually think of that as indiscriminate mass killing. Not targeted killing towards one leader of a economic army that is looking to annex your economic family and knowing you likely are forfeiting your life for it. Like I don't think you could stop psycho killers in a society by having universal health care but that would have kept this guy from doing this desperate thing.
Upvote bc your point is legitimate. And my opinion however is that alliterative words like that on shells is like manifesto level creepy. Like, okay, you're going to murder this dude for these reasons, I'm following along.. and now you're like doing all this micro work on your weaponry.... That feels like a Rorschach level move.. leaving messages on bullet shells for.. who? Those details change my whole perspective. Maybe it's just me.
