UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops

The CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack” by a chillingly methodical killer who used a firearm with a silencer, police said.

Brian Thompson, 50, was repeatedly shot by a masked gunman who had been waiting outside the Hilton hotel along Sixth Avenue, where the CEO was hosting an investors’ conference, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said. 

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The cold-blooded gunman — who remained on the loose late Wednesday — could be seen in disturbing surveillance video obtained by The Post calmly firing multiple gunshots into Thompson at about 6:46 a.m.

Thompson stumbled after the first bullet struck, and briefly turned to face the gunman, who coolly pulled back the weapon’s slide with each shot, the video shows.

He helplessly tried to crawl away as the shooter unleashed a barrage of bullets.

Law enforcement sources said it appeared the shooter not only used a silencer, but was proficient enough with the gun to smoothly clear it after a jam to continue firing.

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The smoothly efficient execution of Thompson unfolded in full view of shocked witnesses in the heart of Manhattan, one of the most heavily trafficked places on the planet — just hours before and blocks away from thousands of sightseers who lined up to watch the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting.

But the killer’s apparently measured actions — including an escape on an e-bike into Central Park, where surveillance camera coverage is spotty — could be undercut by him apparently dropping a key clue: a cellphone. 

Investigators firmly believe a phone found in an alleyway near the Hilton belongs to the gunman, and obtained a search warrant to comb throuh its contents, sources told The Post.

A manhunt was underway for the suspect as the NYPD and CrimeStoppers offered a $10,000 reward for information. 

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The motive behind the heinous hit remained unknown, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny. A personal or professional grudge had not been ruled out as of late Wednesday and law enforcement sources said Thompson had received threats.

“But based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted,” Kenny said. “But at this point, we do not know why. This does not appear to be a random act of violence.”

Thompson was well respected in his field, raking in a salary of nearly $9.9 million a year to head the nation’s largest private health insurer, according to the Economic Research Institute.

But his company also had a controversial history of rejecting claims and faced a Department of Justice antitrust investigation.

The shooting took place a little more than an hour before UnitedHealth’s investors’ conference was scheduled to begin at the Hilton, police said.

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The gunman walked up to the hotel about five minutes before the shooting, Kenny said. 

Witnesses told The Post the suspect had been spotted near the hotel, on Sixth Avenue, milling around. And NYPD officials later released a photo showing the alleged gunman inside a nearby Starbucks.

The masked suspect nonchalantly bought a bottle of water and two PowerBars inside the Starbucks minutes before the shooting, law enforcement sources said.

When Thompson — who had been staying at the nearby Marriott, according to sources — walked up to the hotel, the masked suspect struck, Kenny said.

“The shooter steps onto the sidewalk from behind the car, he ignores numerous other pedestrians, approaches the victim from behind, and shoots him in the back,” Kenny said. “The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot.”

The shooter’s weapon appeared to have malfunctioned at that point, but he managed to clear it to continue firing — a sign the suspect is proficient with firearms, Kenny said.

A gunshot startled one witness nearby, who told PIX11 that he saw the armed assassin.

“I hear a shot,” the witness said, according to PIX11. “When I look around, I saw a guy with a gun. He shot three times, then he starts running.”

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Thompson was struck by bullets at least once each in his back and right calf, Tisch said.

First responders arrived and engaged in a desperate attempt to save Thompson with CPR, harrowing video shows.

He was rushed in critical condition to Mount Sinai West hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m., police said. 

The suspect was described as a white male wearing a dark jacket, black face mask, and black and white sneakers. Officials said he was carrying a distinctive gray backpack. 

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Kenny said the shooter first ran off through the Ziegfeld alleyway between 54th and 55th streets, then hopped onto an e-bike — a ride captured in another surveillance photo.

The gunman pedaled up the Avenue of the Americas toward Central Park, and was last seen around 6:48 a.m. biking onto Center Drive, Kenny said.

Cops recovered three live 9-millimeter rounds and three discharged shell casings at the scene, the chief said.

They also collected the cellphone and a water bottle believed to be the one purchased by the suspect in Starbucks, law enforcement sources said.

Investigators hope they can pull fingerprints from the unspent ammunition, as well as DNA from the water bottle and phone, sources said.

A sweep of surveillance video footage is underway, with police combing feeds near Central Park to trace the gunman’s escape, police said. They’re also pulling video from outside Thompson’s hotel and the Marriott to see if the shooter cased them before the attack, sources said.

By Wednesday afternoon, the search yielded surveillance video that appears to have captured the gunman leaving the area near the Frederick Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side around 5 a.m., more than an hour before the shooting, sources said. 

Another video showed the shooter leave the park’s west side, sources said.

The New York Times obtained surveillance footage showing a man wearing clothing and a backpack matching the shooter’s distinctive garb walking near the shooting scene around 6:30 a.m. The man in the footage appears to be making a phone call.

Kenny said detectives are working with Citi Bike, which puts GPS trackers on its bikes, to find the shooter’s ride.

He said the NYPD was “looking at everything.” 

“We’re looking at his social media,” he said. “We are interviewing employees, we are interviewing family members. We will be speaking to law enforcement in Minnesota.”

Thompson leaves behind his wife, Paulette “Pauley” Thompson, 51, and two children in Minnesota.

The family had received threats, Paulette Thompson told NBC News.

“There had been some threats,” she said, according to NBC. “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.” 

A source confirmed to The Post that United Healthcare informed investigators that Thompson had been the recipient of threats. While this is not uncommon for the CEO of a health care company, investigators are looking at every one of those leads and running them to ground, the source said.

In a statement to a Minnesota FOX outlet, Paulette Thompson said the senseless killing left the family “shattered.”

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“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” the statement reads. “Most importantly, Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed.”

Police in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where the Thompsons live, told The Post that they responded to a single report from their home — a “suspicious activity” incident in 2018 that they cleared “with no criminal activity detected.”

The shooting sent shockwaves through the investors’ conference, where Fortune reported emotional attendees began to cry.

The slain CEO was “a stand-up guy, a good dude,” said one investor who had previously dined with Thompson, according to Forbes. “I’ve never met anyone who had anything bad to say about him.”

Thompson, who had worked with UnitedHealth for the last 20 years, took the role of CEO in 2021 and was based at its offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota, according to his LinkedIn account.  

When promoting Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty, praised his commitment to the company, which serves as the largest private health insurer in the US.

“Brian’s experience, relationships, and values make him especially well-suited to help UnitedHealthcare improve how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments, and our other partners, leading to continued and sustained long-term growth,” Witty said at the time.

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The exec lived in a five-bedroom home that he purchased in the North Star State in 2018 for $1 million, according to Zillow.  

Thompson previously served as the company’s head of government programs, including Medicare and retirement.

The UnitedHealth Group, which employs more than 100,000 people across America, is ranked fourth in the Fortune 500.

“We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare,” a company statement reads. “Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him. We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.”

Thompson and the company aren’t without their controversies, or disgruntled customers.

He had been the subject of a Department of Justice antitrust probe, the Wall Street Journal first reported in February.

Prominent pension funds in California later filed a federal lawsuit against Thompson and other UnitedHealthcare executives, accusing them of offloading $117 million in company stock before the DOJ probe became public. 

Thompson had reaped $15.1 million by dumping the stock, the lawsuit contends.

And UnitedHealthcare has developed a reputation for rejecting claims, a practice at least in part because it used an AI model with a 90% error rate to deny health coverage, Ars Technica first reported.

Mayor Eric Adams sought to reassure New Yorkers that the shooting wasn’t a random act of violence in one of the most visible and highly trafficked places in the country — mere blocks and hours away from the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting.

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“It seemed to have been clearly targeted by an individual, and we will apprehend that individual.”

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said the shooting would not affect the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting later that evening.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that state police will provide the NYPD with whatever it needs. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered prayers for Thompson’s family.

“This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota,” he said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Haley Brown and Larry Celona