Health insurers have begun removing images of their leadership teams from their websites following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The 50-year-old was killed Wednesday morning when a masked gunman fired several bullets outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan.
Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealthcare in 2021, reportedly making $10 million a year, and for several years before that led the Medicare business within UnitedHealthcare.
His company removed his likeness and the photos of other executives on Wednesday, while CVS Health removed photos of all their top executives on Thursday.
Robert D’Amico, founder of Sierra One Consulting who previously worked for the FBI, said the removal showed they had listened to security experts.
D’Amico said, “These companies hear what experts like me say about how easy it is to identify and then find their executives.”
Glen Kucera, president of Enhanced Protection Services at security firm Allied Universal, added, “I think there’s going to be a lot of executives who are going to say, ‘Hey, you know, this could happen to me and we really need to think about our security protocol in the future.”
The 50-year-old was killed Wednesday morning as a masked gunman fired several bullets into the management outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown.
D’Amico said he expects company boards to reassess their executive security plans.
That includes asking for assessments of the size of a security detail to deploy while weighing costs. He said that people like Elon Musk have twenty people around them every day.
Robert D’Amico, founder of Sierra One Consulting who previously worked for the FBI, said the takedown showed they had listened to security experts like him
D’Amico pointed to social media posts showing people verbally attacking insurance companies and employees in the immediate aftermath of Thompson’s killing.
“I think the health care companies will see that and realize that there is more hate for them and their executives,” D’Amico said.
Thompson’s wife Paulette, from whom he was separated, revealed that he had recently faced threats citing a “lack of reporting.”
UnitedHealthcare had hired security for their top executives, with Thompson having his own security staff for the event, who were absent when he was shot.
As news of his killing spread Wednesday morning, many major healthcare providers beefed up personal protections for their top officials, according to CNN.
His plan was well known, and witnesses said the suspected shooter even knew which door Thompson would exit through before opening fire.
A new image obtained by CNN shows the killer walking along West 55th Street as he made his way to the Hilton Hotel on the morning of the shooting
The killer is seen grinning in new surveillance footage released by the NYPD
Still, the investor conference reportedly began without interruption at 8 a.m. on the second floor of the Hilton until news of the shooting began to circulate.
Without realizing it was Thompson who was hit, one participant told the group that “someone got shot outside.”
CEO of parent company United Healthgroup Andrew Witty stopped the meeting at the hotel just after 8 a.m. when he heard of the tragedy.
He told those gathered: “We are dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members. As a result, I’m afraid we’ll have to end the event.”
D’Amico told DailyMail.com on Thursday that his killer had made crucial mistakes that marked him as an amateur.
He warned that the “brutal” killing could lead to copycat killings as he speculated it was the work of someone with a “personal vendetta” against Thompson’s company.
The security expert reviewed the footage of the killing and noted that while D’Amico’s first shot was on target, his subsequent hits were more erratic.
‘His first shot was well aimed. But on the second one, he somehow hits him in the leg. He took a longer chance than you would expect if it was professional,” he said.
He pointed out that although the shooter used a silencer, the gun jammed after his first round.
D’Amico, the founder of his security consultancy Sierra One, said it was surprising that Thompson had no protection whatsoever given the recent threats against him.
Detectives investigating the murder also found shell casings with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’ engraved on them
Bullets litter the sidewalk at the site outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Manhattan where Thompson was fatally shot
He warned that such threats are likely to increase in the wake of the killing and could spur others already considering such crimes to take similar actions.
Police are still searching for Thompson’s killer Friday morning after the incident early Wednesday morning.
Police sources told CNN on Thursday that they believe the shooter arrived on a bus from Atlanta to New York City on November 24.
He is said to have arrived at the Port Authority bus station in Manhattan after a 20-hour bus journey from the southern city.
Sources told the outlet that he then appeared to move around the city after checking into the Hi New York City hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
The outlet said he checked out of the hostel on November 29 and checked back in the next day.
He had checked into the hostel with a fake New Jersey driver’s license and paid for his stay in cash.
Authorities hunting the masked gunman were handed evidence from the hostel after a flirtatious moment with a staff member and saw him pull down his face mask.
After complying, surveillance cameras at the hostel managed to get a clearer image of the smiling suspect that the NYPD later dispersed as part of their ongoing manhunt.
A new image obtained by CNN also shows the killer walking along West 55th Street as he made his way to the Hilton Hotel on the morning of the shooting.
Sources told The New York Post that investigators are focusing their efforts on a gun store in Connecticut that they believe sold the B&T VP9 pistol.
He is believed to have stayed in the shared room, seen here, and checked in using a fake New Jersey ID
Officers showed up at the hostel on Thursday as part of their ongoing search and also raided a Long Island Rail Road train on Wednesday.
It is now also believed that the weapon used in the shooting was a modern version of a rare World War II weapon.
Sources told The New York Post that investigators are focusing their efforts on a gun shop in Connecticut that they believe sold the B&T VP9 pistol.
Detectives investigating the murder also found shell casings with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” engraved on them.
On Wednesday, images emerged of him with his face covered in a Starbucks near the hotel before the shooting.
In a nearby trash bin, officers found a water bottle and a package of protein bars that they said the gunman had purchased from the coffee chain minutes before the shooting.
The gunman had escaped on foot before ending up on an electric bicycle and disappearing into Central Park.