What we know about New York City shooting of UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson

Published

5 months ago

December 5, 2024

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Police in New York City are searching for the gunman who killed the chief executive of America’s biggest health insurance provider outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday.

Brian Thompson, 50, was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare – the fourth-largest public company in the United States.

He was targeted by what experts claim is a “seasoned, professional killer”, who shot him as he was walking into the hotel where his company was holding an investors’ conference.

What happened?

The shooting happened at 6.45am on Wednesday – just before sunrise.

Brian Thompson was in New York City for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investors conference, which was due to start at 8am.

As he walked towards the entrance of the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue, CCTV footage shows a gunman emerging from two parked cars behind him.

The suspect draws his weapon and fires at least three times at close range – around 15ft (4.6m) away from him on the pavement.

Mr Thompson is shot in the back and the calf and falls to the ground.

The weapon, believed to have been fitted with a 9mm silencer, appears to jam, at which point the shooter fixes the problem and fires again.

There was at least one bystander present, but the gunman does not approach them, instead crossing the street and disappearing down an alleyway on the other side of the road.

Wanted posters show CCTV pictures of him on an electric bike, which police say he fled the scene on and was last seen riding in nearby Central Park.

Emergency services later arrived at the scene, which is near the Rockefeller Center, where the famous annual Christmas lights switch-on took place hours after.

The UnitedHealthcare conference started on time as planned – but an hour later the chief executive of the firm’s wider group Andrew Whitty appeared on stage to say it was being cancelled.

Who was Brian Thompson?

Brian Thompson joined UnitedHealthcare from an accountancy firm in 2004 and was named chief executive officer in April 2021. He previously served as chief executive of the firm’s government programmes business.

UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the US and manages insurance for employers and state and federally-funded programmes.

It is the fourth largest public company in the country – behind Walmart, Amazon, and Apple.

He lived in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is around a 20-minute drive from the company headquarters.

He studied at the University of Iowa – and was married with two children.

His wife Paulette Thompson told NBC News that he had said “there were some people that had been threatening him” but gave no further details.

The police chief of the suburb where Mr Thompson lived, Eric Werner, said his department had received no reports of threats towards him.

His sister-in-law Elena Reveiz, told the New York Times: “He was a good person and I am so sad.”

UnitedHealthcare described him in its statement as a “highly respected colleague” and a “friend to all who worked with him”.

What do we know about the suspect?

Police officials are describing the shooting as a “premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack” and “not a random act of violence”.

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said the killer appeared to have been “lying in wait for several minutes” for Mr Thompson to approach the hotel.

The 911 call describes him as around 5ft 10in, wearing all black, his face covered by a mask, and carrying a grey backpack.

Former FBI special agent Terry Rankhorn told Sky News his behaviour showed he was “clearly a seasoned, professional killer”.

“He paces his target. He doesn’t run up, like an inexperienced, emotional, amateur killer. He draws his weapon and takes careful aim,” he said.

Mr Rankhorn said the gun is likely to have malfunctioned due to the mismatch between the 9mm silencer used and what was likely subsonic ammunition.

“The ill-fitted suppressor on the weapon can cause a malfunction,” he said. “But he knew exactly how to deal with it.”

Mr Rankhorn said it is also noteworthy that the suspect spotted a bystander and was unfazed by them.

“He evaluates them to see if they’re any threat to him… determines they’re just trying to flee the scene, and returns focus to his target,” he said.

Crime scene investigators found several 9mm shell casings outside the hotel – and a mobile phone in the alleyway the gunman fled through.

They also searched Mr Thompson’s hotel room, interviewed his colleagues, and scoured his social media.

Mr Rankin told Sky News any motive is “purely speculation” at this early stage. But he adds that possibilities include Mr Thompson being involved in “white collar crime” whereby confederates may have feared him going to the police, or an “insider stock trading scandal”.

Police have given no indication of the gunman’s motive so far. They are offering a $10,000 (£7,860) reward for information.

US

Mexican navy training vessel hits New York’s Brooklyn Bridge – as reports say three injured

Published

13 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Mexican navy training vessel hits New York's Brooklyn Bridge - as reports say three injured

A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.

The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.

Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.

The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.

Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.

The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.

The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.

The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.

Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.

It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.

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US

One person dead after explosion outside fertility clinic in California

Published

18 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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One person dead after explosion outside fertility clinic in California

One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.

The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.

The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.

Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.

The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.

“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”

In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”

It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.

“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.

The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.

“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.

The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).

A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.

The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.

Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.

Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”

Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.

California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.

US

James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director’s seashells post ‘meant assassination’

Published

1 day ago

May 17, 2025

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James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director's seashells post 'meant assassination'

A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.

James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.

He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.

One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.

Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.

Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.

“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”

Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.

Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.

Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.

While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.