Wife of Assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Speaks Out: ‘There Had Been Some Threats’

The widow of murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson said he had received threats at one point.

Thompson was shot to death early Wednesday outside a midtown Manhattan Hilton hotel where the company was having an investor event.

“We are shattered to hear about the senseless killing of our beloved Brian,” Paulette Thompson wrote in a statement, according to Fox Business. “Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives.”

“There had been some threats,” she told NBC.

“Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [health care] coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him,” she said.

“I can’t really give a thoughtful response right now. I just found this out, and I’m trying to console my children,” she said.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspect is still at large. The suspect had waited for Thompson, she said.

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

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the gunman preceded Thompson to the hotel by about five minutes. The shooter emerged to gun down Thompson.

“The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again,” he said.

Thompson did not travel with security.

“Speaking to other employees that traveled with him to New York, it doesn’t seem like he had a security detail. He left the hotel by himself, was walking, didn’t seem like he had any issues at at all,” Kenny said, according to NBC.

Former FBI supervisor Rob D’Amico said the incident appears to him to be motivated by a grudge against the company

“Even a layman can find there’s so much on the internet now, and people put so much out there,” he said, noting that tracking down someone is not as hard as it might appear.

According to Fox Business, the electric bike the suspect used to flee the scene had a GPS system.

The New York Post reported that a cellphone found in an alley near the hotel is believed to have been dropped by the suspect.

The Post reported that the suspect bought a bottle of water and two PowerBars while waiting in a Starbucks for Thompson to arrive.

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