Fake bomb threats were made against a home owned by UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and another owned by his wife after he was murdered Wednesday morning.
The two homes, which are less than a mile apart in Maple Grove, Minnesota, were targeted on Wednesday evening, The Minnesota Star Tribune reports. The threat was sent via e-mail to multiple people who then notified the police.
However, the threats were not credible and were considered an act of “swatting,” Maple Grove police said.
“No devices or suspicious items were located during the investigation,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. ”The case is considered an active investigation, while the incident appears to be a hoax.”
The Minneapolis Police Department bomb squad and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office also helped investigate the threats, the Star Tribune reports.
As CEO, Thompson worked out of UnitedHealthcare’s offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Thompson and his wife, Paulette, had been living in separate homes less than a mile apart in Maple Grove for years, according toThe Wall Street Journal.
The threats came in just 12 hours after Thompson was shot outside a Manhattan Hilton hotel on Wednesday.
The shooting was a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack,” police said late Wednesday morning. Thompson appeared unaware he was in danger and had no security detail near him, police said.
Video of the incident shows the shooter calmly walking up behind Thompson before shooting him multiple times, then calmly crossing the street. The footage also showed a bystander who witnessed the shooting and ran away as the suspect fired at Thompson.
A massive manhunt is now underway for the unidentified shooter, who fled the scene on a bike. Police searched a hostel in upper Manhattan where they believe the suspect was staying, CNN reported Thursday morning. They since discovered he checked in with a fake New Jersey ID.
Thompson’s wife told NBC News her husband received threats prior to Wednesday’s shooting.
“There had been some threats,” she said. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [health insurance] coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Police also discovered the suspect had written three words on the ammunition he used to shoot Thompson: “Deny,” “defend” and “depose.”
The words are similar to a popular phrase in the insurance industry: “Deny, delay, defend.” A 2020 book by Jay Feinman about the insurance industry also bears a similar title: Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. The book describes itself as an “expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back.”
News of Thompson’s death received a mixed response on social media, with many users airing their frustrations with the insurance industry and sharing stories of how major American insurers had denied them or their loved ones coverage for life-saving medical procedures.
“Sympathy denied,” one user wrote. “Greed is considered a pre-existing condition.”
“Thoughts and prior authorizations,” another wrote.
Those sentiments, however, soon prompted a counter-response, with many others labeling such responses inappropriate.
“Yet, people are reacting with anger and scorn to the death − not because a husband and father was fatally shot on a Manhattan sidewalk,” USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques wrote Thursday. “But because of the victim’s job as head of a major health insurance company.”
“The callous disregard for a human life is alarming to witness,” she added.
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