Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The gunman who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was likely driven by “very personal anger,” experts told Newsweek.Thompson, 50, was gunned down by an unknown assailant as he walked to his company’s annual investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel at around 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday.Four days later, the gunman remains unidentified and at large after fleeing the scene on foot before riding a bike into Central Park. Police believe the suspect since fled the city on a bus.Investigators on Friday found a backpack in the park that was worn by the gunman during the shooting, and are testing a discarded water bottle, a cell phone and other evidence in a hunt for his DNA.A number of photos and videos of the suspected shooter have been circulated since the shooting, including ones taken inside a Starbucks shortly before the shooting. Only photos taken inside the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side captured his face—reportedly when a female employee asked to see his smile while flirting with the man.
Police place bullet casing markers outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Experts say the gunman may…
Police place bullet casing markers outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Experts say the gunman may have been driven by “very personal anger.”
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Police have not revealed a motive for the attack, but investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, told reporters.Kenny said the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition used in the shooting, according to The Associated Press. They point to a phrase commonly used by lawyers and critics of insurers that delay payments, deny claims and defend their actions in court. It was previously reported that the words on the bullets were “deny,” “defend” and “depose.”Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, said the attack was clearly “calculated.”But she told Newsweek that the words written on the ammunition and the gunman’s “nonchalant attitude” lead her to believe “this is very personal anger over a loss of a loved one, perhaps due to an insurance denial.”The gunman appeared to have “little concern about more fully covering his tracks,” she said. “The fact he stayed with others at a hostel… dropping the phone, and his very poor marksmanship.”But the shooting was “very well planned,” she said. “He was successful in his mission, after all. Mr. Thompson is deceased.”Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist, told Newsweek that there are signs that the shooter was a “disgruntled loved one of a patient who died because they were denied coverage by United Healthcare.”The gunman “was trying to send a message by leaving the shell casings behind,” she said. The words refer “to what insurance companies do to save money instead of saving lives. A loved one would want to be sure this message got out.”She said that while some have suggested the gunman is a professional because of how he handled his weapon when it jammed, he “could simply be a person who was trained to shoot—like someone who had been in the military or who liked to go to the gun range for sport.”Lieberman added that if the gunman was hired, he may have been hired by the family of a patient denied coverage. “It could have been part of the deal for the hitman to send a message by leaving the shell casings behind,” she said.
