Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SHOCK VIDEO: HEALTH BOSS GUNNED DOWN IN TARGETED ATTACK, SHOOTER’S FACE CAPTURED

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

  At 6:46 a.m., patrol officers from the Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call about a person shot in front of the Hilton Hotel on Avenue of the Americas. At 6:48 a.m., officers arrived and found the victim, Brian Thompson, 50, CEO of United Healthcare, with gunshot wounds to his back and leg. A manhunt is underway for the shooter, who police say waited for Thompson to exit his hotel. According to investigators, the suspect arrived at the location on foot about five minutes before Thompson's arrival. Thompson was walking alone toward the Hilton after exiting his hotel across the street. The shooter, described as a light-skinned male, was wearing a light brown or cream-colored jacket, a black face mask, black-and-white sneakers, and a distinctive gray backpack. The suspect stepped onto the sidewalk from behind a car, ignored other pedestrians, approached Thompson from behind, and shot him in the back. The suspect then walked closer to the victim and continued shooting. Police believe the gun malfunctioned as the shooter cleared a jam and resumed firing. The suspect fled on foot northbound into an alleyway before getting onto an electric E-City bike and riding toward Central Park. Police have released several photos of the suspect, including a full-face image. At the scene, officers recovered three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings with the words “Deny,” “Depose,” and “Defend” inscribed on them.  JOINING NANCY GRACE TODAY: Bernarda Villalona  – NY Criminal Defense Attorney & Former Prosecutor, Villalona Law, PLLC.: @BernardaVillalona (FaceBook, Instagram, LinkdIn, TikTok, Threads); X: @VillalonaLaw Dr. Cheryl Arutt - Licensed Clinical and Forensic Psychologist specializing in Trauma Recovery, PTSD and EMDR Website: askdrcheryl.com  Website: CreativeEMDR.com IG: @askdrcheryl Bill Daly – Former FBI Investigator and Forensic Photography, Security Expert  Scott Eicher – A founding member of the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (C.A.S.T); Historical Cellular Analysis Expert; Former FBI agent of 22 years; Former Police Officer and Homicide Detective with Norfolk Virginia Police Dept. having served 12 years; Currently with Precision Cellular Analysis handling Criminal, Defense and Civil case Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan", @JoScottForensic EMAIL: [e-mail]  Lauren Conlin - Podcaster/Reporter/Host- Co-Host of Primetime Crime on YouTube. Website: www.popcrime.tv & primetimecrimeshow.com X- @Conlin_Lauren, Instagram- @LaurenEmilyConlin, YouTube: @PopCrimeTV  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Shocking video emerging of a health boss gunned down in a targeted attack. At this hour, are marriage secrets revealed? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. A masked gunman shoots dead the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Midtown Manhattan.

An urgent search ensues for the suspect. Last seen entering Central Park. Marriage secrets being revealed? As this health boss worth millions of dollars is gunned down and open around the public. What do we make of clues left behind cryptic and odd clues? For instance, bullets found actually have been inscribed with letters on them. A cell phone had been left behind. Is there DNA on a water bottle? Was this a pro? A silencer was used and in the middle of the assassination, the gun jams and seemingly the pro shooter simply adjusted and continued firing.

Everyone, thank you for being with us. If this can happen in public, what are we to think of it? Well, take a listen to what the chief of detectives has to say. This morning at 6.46 a.m., patrol officers from Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call of a person shot in front of the Hilton Hotel located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. This is between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street. At 648 a.m., officers arrive and find the victim, Brian R. Thompson, a 50-year-old male, on the sidewalk in front of the Hilton with gunshot wounds to his back and legs. You know, the way the shooter handled the weapon, the use of a silencer, the mask, the lying in wait, all indicates a professional hit.

But a pro wouldn't want to be caught. A pro would do everything not to get caught. So then why were there especially engraved bullets with cryptic messages on them. Mm-mm. It sounds like a fifth-grade girl writing a crime thriller. Something's way off with this. Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, but first, straight out to investigative reporter Lauren Conlon joining us,

co-host Primetime Crime on YouTube, and you can find her at PopCrime.TV, who has gone to the scene and investigated. Lauren, what can you tell us? Yes, Nancy. And the street, the entire street of West 53rd Street was blocked off. There was plainclothes detectives as well as uniformed officers basically not saying anything. I asked questions. I asked witnesses if they heard anything. And the parking lot attendants were actually there earlier that morning. But they

said, you know, due to the silencer, they didn't hear anything. Tell me your understanding, what you learned of what happened starting at the beginning. Starting at the beginning, I learned that Brian Thompson arrived in New York Monday. Now, he was not staying at the Hilton. He was staying at a hotel across the street. He was set to speak wait before he shot him. Take a listen to Chief Detective Joe Kinney. Mr. Thompson was removed by EMS to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7.12 a.m.

Mr. Thompson is the CEO of UnitedHealthcare and resides in Minnesota. Detectives from Nightwatch, Midtown North Detective Squad, and Manhattan South Homicide responded to the scene and began their investigation. We're learning a lot. I want to go straight out to Bill Daly joining us from New York, former FBI investigator, forensic photography, international security expert. Bill, thank you for being with us you see the video stills were showing i don't know that a pro would have done this right in front of a surveillance video well you're exactly right nancy is that you know people throw on this thing about you know professional hit men i mean those are those are out of the movies i mean this this could be somebody

who trained who thought it out well obviously he has done a lot of reconnaissance and research but we're talking about professional hit people that's something made in the movies i would say nancy a couple things i'm quite familiar with this area being a new yorker and having worked on the streets of new york for quite a number of years is that this is actually the side entrance the uh mr thompson was apparently staying around the corner we believe at the marriott hotel which actually gave him a couple of avenues of approach to the hotel this is the side entrance the main entrance on sixth avenue so for this gunman to know that he was going to be coming down the side street at this time suggests to me there was some other reconnaissance inside information

that he knew that he was at another hotel he wasn't saying at the hilton that he'd be coming down this street he could thompson could have easily walked around 7th Avenue, come down 55th Street or another street to grab a cup of coffee, but he didn't. And so there are a couple of things out here that kind of jump out to me that are really concerning with regard to how much information was known about the specific movements of Mr. Thompson that morning. Bill Daley, I know exactly what you mean about that location, but wouldn't it have been easy for the perp, the killer, to be waiting in the lobby, waiting for the victim, Brian Thompson, to walk out? He didn't have to be lying in wait at that side entrance. He could have simply

followed him. He did come up behind him. Yeah, I mean, there are a couple things here, Nancy, that is true. And in fact, you know, if he knew he was going to be speaking at the conference, he didn't have to be waiting outside. He could have done it just in the lobby, upstairs in an elevator or some other place where he knew there was kind of a kind of choke point where he would have had to travel through in order to get to the conference. The other thing is that which kind of points to perhaps something more someone from the area or from the, is the fact that Mr. Thompson lives out in Minnesota. Day to day, he comes to and from work. He comes to and from his home.

He goes perhaps to see maybe his children's sporting events, who knows what. But those are kind of open areas, other areas where he could have been a target. But yet this was done in New York City where he doesn't live, where he was visiting, where this person would have only had a couple of days opportunity for any kind of reconnaissance and kind of staging this event. And so it kind of

leads me to suggest that this person chose New York either because it's more difficult, you can get lost in the city, you can do things like this, you could disappear into Central Park and perhaps try to hide your trails, you know, or it was a matter of convenience that the person was in and around the area and didn't have to travel to Minnesota. You're right. The victim in town to speak at an investor conference. Listen, the victim was in New York City to speak at an investor conference. It appears the suspect was lying in wait for several minutes. And as the victim was walking to the conference hotel, the suspect approached from behind and fired several rounds, striking the victim at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf. Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended

target. Well, it's clearly targeted, Bill Daley. There is no robbery. There is no carjacking. There is no sex attack. So it's targeted. Can we look at the photo of the suspect's face? Now, we keep hearing we don't know much about him, but I can tell you right now he's white, number one. He knows enough to cover his face, but I see that he is not wearing gloves. To Lauren Conlon, what can you tell me about a discarded water bottle? The discarded water bottle, Nancy, was found in the alleyway, which is between 53rd and 54th Street.

It's the Ziegfeld Ballroom alleyway. A pro would not leave behind a water bottle. A pro wouldn't even be drinking anything right before you murder somebody. Not exactly right, Nancy. And it goes to my suggestion. This person, again, kind of orchestrated this, pre-planned it, thought it out.

We can speak about perhaps the weapon a little bit later on. All these things tied to somebody who is knowledgeable about not only what they were doing, but certainly not a professional. That's somebody we might see kind of portrayed in the movies. These people would be much more sub-roser about their efforts, would kind of not be seen beforehand. And I'm going to suggest to you is that besides this video and these images we have now, as the police are looking to kind of put together both the timeline and his trail, there'll

be some more coming out. And we'll have some more facial images perhaps, the DNA may help. But as we all know, working these cases, because you need to have something to compare it to, you need to have some database to compare it to or using ancestral DNA, perhaps tie this person back to someone else and work through that angle. So even though we have all these things and it could be, who knows, maybe fragmented fingerprints on the bullet casings or other evidence left behind. But again, you need something to compare it to. What we know is that the shooter arrived at the location on foot

about five minutes prior to the victim's arrival. He stands alongside the building line as numerous other people and pedestrians pass him by. From video, we see at 6.44 a.m. the victim is walking alone towards the Hilton after exiting his hotel across the street. We believe the victim was headed to the Hilton Hotel to attend the United Health Group Investors Conference that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Let me look at that stance one more time where the shooter is pointing, pointing the gun at the victim. You know, everybody on the panel jump in, but Bill Daley, look at that. It looks like someone has been watching too many movies and they think that's a professional killer stance. Do you see, you see that right there? I'm just telling you,

look, he doesn't have on gloves. He's been hanging out drinking from a water bottle that he leaves behind. I also understand a cell phone has been left behind. And then he gets on a city bike. It reminds me of a bank robbery I prosecuted where the perp had a bike waiting around the corner. He was anything but a pro. And he peddled off just like this guy is doing. What do you make of that, Bill? Yeah, all these things kind of add up to the fact that this person, again, gave some thought, but yet you talk about, quote, professional. I mean, we really don't have these kind of, quote, professional hitmen throughout the country. Maybe the mafia does, but we're not talking about people knocking off executives. This doesn't happen in the United

States, perhaps overseas, and perhaps a concern when people travel to high-risk locations, but certainly not in New York City. But I'd probably tell you is that both that stance is kind of a suggestion that the person thought they knew what they were doing, but also the fact that this gun jammed. It jammed several times, apparently right to each shot, according to police. They believe that it jammed maybe because there

was a silencer on the front a silencer that perhaps caused the jam to occur but he did clear it very quickly and efficiently so he's somebody who did do some practice training with that weapon beforehand whoa whoa whoa lauren collin the gun jammed more than once apparently it jammed between shots but you know that didn't stop him so So he, he kept shooting after he fixed it. So the answer is yes. Okay. That's telling me a lot right there. Daily, daily, daily. A pro is going to take a gun that jams between every shot. Really? Yeah. Well,

according to some of the forensic experts is that by using that silencer, and again, silencers are not things that you are supposed to legally have. So if it was homemade, it could have caused more of this kind of malfunction of the weapon. But again, it did seem as though, calmly, he cleared that weapon. He was able to pull the slide on the top.

Daily. Did you say homemade? Look, this is, whoo, this is smelling. This is not a pro. I don't even know where that came from. A homemade silencer. A pro can make a homemade silencer.

But come on, man. A homemade silencer that doesn't work? A pretend professional killer stance? Drinking a water bottle and leaving it behind and hopping on a bike without gloves and taking off? No, no. I got to figure this thing out. Guys, why was a health CEO worth millions of dollars gunned down in public early, early morning. Many people say it's a pro-killer. The shooter then flees on foot northbound into an alleyway between 54th Street and 55th Street.

Once at West 55th Street, the shooter continues to walk westbound on the Avenue of the Americas where he gets onto an electric E-City bike and rides northbound on the Avenue of the Americas towards Central Park. At 6.48 a.m., we have the shooter riding this bike into Central Park at Center Drive. We're still tracking video. The last we see with him on that bike is in Central Park. At the scene, we recover three live nine millimeter rounds and three discharged nine millimeter shell casings. The motive for this murder currently is unknown, but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted. But at this point, we do not know why. This does not appear to be a random act of violence.

Okay, I know that. I know it's not random. Joining me, high profile lawyer, Bernarda Villalona, New York criminal defense attorney. This is her beat. She is also a former prosecutor. Bernarda, thank you for being with us. What do you make of it so far? Because not only did the pro-assassin leave behind three discharged nine millimeter shell casings, they were engraved with three cryptic words. I mean, it's straight out of a crime novel. And another thing, Bernarda, anybody that knows how to type G-O-O-G-L-E could find out this guy was speaking where and at what time. Yeah, but I still think there's an inside job because in a sense of they could have known where he was speaking, but they wouldn't have known exactly what time he would have been leaving

out of his hotel. Because remember, this shooter had only been waiting about five minutes. So he had to have had some kind of inside information to know the exact time that Brian Thompson would have been leaving his hotel. Look, all of this looks very shady. I don't think it's a professional kill at all because number one, the leaving of the shell casings and the bullets there, and then jumping on a bike. I think there's a lot more to this. I don't see that there's going to be an arrest anytime soon, though. Hold on just a moment on that.

Bill Daley with me, former FBI investigator and joining us from New York, New York, intimately familiar with the ins and outs, the alleyways where this happened. The guy then goes to Central Park. That was a pretty good move. And it's not that far from where the shooting was by bike, but he goes into Central Park, which is blanketed with surveillance videos. I mean, and we can follow his drill. He had to ditch the bike somewhere. I think that we're going to find out where he leaves the bike. And again, no gloves. As you said earlier, of course, you've got to have something to compare it to. If he's not in the DNA or the APHIS database, we don't have anything to match it to.

But that said, can we just agree this is not a pro? Yeah, I surely agree it's not a pro. I also think that there's other probably kind of breadcrumbs left behind is that, you know, if this was connected with either the business because of, see, either it had been a customer who was certainly totally upset and obsessed with this individual or perhaps a former employee. There could have been a number of things. But I think you have to go back and start looking at were there threats against the company, apparently, according to the victim's wife, there were. And if there were, who was making those? And what was the steps? Hey, let me follow up with what you're just saying, Bill Daly.

Lauren Conlon. Now, according to one person, there have been threats on the victim's life, and that is his wife. Were those threats ever reported to L.A. law enforcement? Nancy, those threats were never reported to law enforcement. With me also is Scott Eicher, founding member, I can't say this enough, of the FBI's cellular analysis survey team. Can I just say, he didn't just fall off the turnip truck, people. Iker, if I was going to pick him off, I would go somewhere with a silencer and wait. Out in the middle of nowhere, right?

Let his body lay there for three or four hours before anybody figures anything out. So why intentionally find him in New York City? I agree. There's a lot of other places that you could have done this, this murder. But there's a lot of benefits of doing it in a crowded city also. I mean, if you think about it, you might be able to mix in with the regular people walking to and from work, cars and everything like that. He didn't think about all the cameras in the area. He didn't think about all the people that might see different things. And obviously, I agree with the other gentleman that says, I don't think this guy is a professional.

I do think he has some training. I mean, I was on the FBI SWAT team. I shot twice a week. And I can see that type of stance that he had from training for him to do that malfunction. Clear the clear the gun. Shoot again. Clear it. Clear it. That that takes training and time. So I think in least in my mind, he's made a lot of mistakes. I don't think he's a professional. I totally agree with that. But he has had some training. And we're learning more from Chief of Detectives Joe Kinney. From speaking to other employees that traveled with him to New

York, it doesn't seem that he had a security detail. He left the hotel by himself, was walking, didn't seem like he had any issues at all. So I don't think he did not have a security detail. Lauren Conlon, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there just a firefighter's pension fund that sued the victim because he dumped about 31% of his stock, made $15 million just before everything went south, right? And there's a complaint about that. Yes. That's happening. The wife says there's death threats. He's worth millions of dollars and he doesn't have security detail. Yes. His net worth is $43 million, Nancy. And not only that, I found a plethora of lawsuits. He was accused of creating an algorithm to deny patient's coverage. So I found quite a few lawsuits there. And then

additionally, there was a data breach at a few, I believe it was February of 2024, where many, many people were at risk and not happy. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In addition to a water bottle and a candy wrapper, really? He's got to have a starburst just before a murder? In addition to those clues and possibly a cell phone linked to the suspect. Listen to this. It's just like a fifth grade girl writes an action thriller or tries to listen. Police have released a new chilling detail in the assassination style shooting. Three live rounds and three shell casings recovered from the crime scene. And cops are now saying there are inscriptions on the shell casings. The words deny, defend and depose

were engraved on the bullets. So the words deny, defend and depose were engraved on the bullets by who? The local jeweler? Joining me right now is a ballistics expert, Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star of a hit series, Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan. Joe Scott, really? Okay, I can't hammer this enough. A pro, what did they write in fancy cursive? Deny, defend, depose? Seriously? That sounds like the ransom note left behind in JonBenet. A small foreign faction wants $118,000. Stop! What's really fascinating about this, Nancy, is the fact that they've got three spent casings that are on the ground and then they have the three live rounds. And he's having to try to clear this weapon because he's had a malfunction, which actually does occur with some frequency when you have a suppressed weapon.

And the fact that he had engraving, and I keep hearing this term, this engraving that was on these casings, the fact that he had a jam in the weapon, I would think that it would be engraved on all of the rounds so how can you plan for that for instance if these rounds are stacked which they would be in a magazine and every time he clears it he's going to eject a live round as opposed to those that were spent when he was firing. If you watch the sequence on the video, he fires once, and then it looks like he clears, but he may have actually cleared two rounds at that point in time that were still live because the weapon is jamming on him,

and he has to cycle through it. So he's taken a lot of time. My suspicion is there might be engraving on all of the rounds and that he has taken a lot of time somewhere, probably at home or wherever it is. He shows up prepared to a certain degree, although he didn't wear gloves and he didn't fully mask his face. There's a lot still to kind of untangle here, but that point is certainly fascinating. I've never encountered this before in my years in forensics to this degree. Now, you know, Hollywood makes a big deal define how this was engraved, what instrumentality was used, and then maybe the folks will be able to pick up on some form in his writing if he's doing this freehand. Brian Thompson's wife, Paulette, tells NBC News that Brian has been

receiving death threats. She doesn't go into detail, saying it was basically due to a lack of coverage. She adds that she doesn't know exactly, but Brian said there were some people that had been threatening him. Straight back out to Joe Scott Morgan joining us. Joe Scott, if I said earlier, if there was a death out on my husband, A, I wouldn't let him travel alone to New York. I would at least go with him at the very least. But that said, they have children to take care of back at home. But no security detail, no police reports, nothing. And she is the only one coming forward with the alleged threats. If they weren't reported to police, can anyone within the company verify this ever happened?

Well, if he hasn't spoken of this to anybody that's around him, but why would he not, you know, say something about this? And let me tell you one more thing. A guy that is in his atmosphere, you know, we see all these so-called celebrities that are out there that have these, you know, security details with it. This is a guy, Nancy, that actually has a level of value and would heighten anybody's senses relative to the danger he could potentially be in. Why wouldn't you put a couple of people on him to check the route at least to be body people that are going to escort him around? Maybe he didn't want that. I have no idea. But I do know that he's a prime target. It's just fascinating to me that they chose this particular location. This individual went about it in this manner

because I agree with all of the other panelists. I think this guy has some weapons familiarity, but he is in no way a pro. If he had been a pro, we would not have seen the video last that long. This guy would have been dropped immediately. I hope you're sitting down. You may need to lay down for what you're about to hear. Take a listen. The suspect was reportedly spotted outside a public housing project roughly three miles from the crime scene at 5 a.m., carrying what looked like an e-bike battery.

He's then seen again checking out at Starbucks, not far from the Hilton, just minutes before the attack. It's unclear what exactly the suspect purchased, but police believe a water bottle and candy wrapper left at the crime scene may belong to the shooter and are testing the items for latent fingerprints and DNA. The next thing we're going to hear, Lauren Cullen, is that the shooter used a credit card. I mean, he hung out at a Starbucks just before the shooting and of course places himself at a public housing project. Yeah, that's right. Blame the people at the housing project somehow drag that into it. I guarantee

that was orchestrated three miles from the scene with what looked to be carrying an e-bike battery in case his e-bike crapped out on him. Now, at first, this was reported to be a city bike, the kind that are easily accessed all around New York City. Now we, this was reported to be a city bike, the kind that are easily accessed all around New York City. Now we're hearing it may not be a city bike. That said, then he's at Starbucks just beside the Hilton minutes before the attack, staring straight into the surveillance cameras. So there's not just a water bottle he leaves behind a candy wrapper. Somebody needs a bit of honey. Somebody wants a Starburst before a murder. Yes. And there also have been reports that NYPD believes that he may have actually taken the

subway from the Upper West Side to Midtown and to that Starbucks. Wait, then if he was on the Upper West Side, then he spotted at a housing project. There's not a housing project on the Upper West side. Okay. That's where all the rich people live. They'll look down on Central Park. There's not a housing project there. So does he leave the Upper West to go to a housing project to be spotted and then go to the Starbucks? Well, that's what police are trying to figure out. And I'm hoping that he did take the subway because Mayor Eric Adams did implement more cameras earlier this year. Okay, I got a lot of surveillance on this guy. But you're right.

Subway would help me figure out where he's coming from, where he's going, and how he knows those paths. I'm still flummoxed by the fact that he would leave a water bottle with his DNA on it, a candy wrapper, take a bike, no gloves, has a pretend pro shooter stance and has engraved bullets for Pete's sake. Why not just throw down your driver's license before you leave. Okay, now we hear about a potential eyewitness that goes on the run. Police still have not identified the eyewitness who ran from the scene as Thompson was gunned down. A woman dressed in dark clothing and holding a coffee cup was standing in a doorway just feet away from Thompson when the shooter opened fire. She runs along the building toward the shooter to avoid the gunfire and disappears from frame. Authorities are asking her to come forward, hoping she may be able to provide new details on

the shooter. There's a cell phone recovered in the alleyway. We're working through that cell phone. Obviously, we'll be processing it forensically. And as far as words being exchanged, we do not have audio of the incident. We only have the regular video. Nothing from witnesses? Nothing. Well, there was one witness standing right next to the victim when he was shot. We're still trying to identify that victim. Excuse me, excuse me, that witness. And we also learn that law enforcement has turned their attention back home to Minnesota. Listen. Once again, we're looking at everything. We're looking at his social media. We are interviewing employees. We are interviewing family members. We will be speaking to law enforcement in Minnesota. To Bernarda Villalona joining us, high profile criminal defense attorney,

former prosecutor in this jurisdiction. What do you make of it? There's still so much unknown. There's still so much unknown, Nancy. I mean, I'm nervous. I just don't see that there's going to be a somewhat arrested or apprehended at least for another few months, if ever. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Thank you. every surveillance video around and he's traveling on public transportation. You still think we're not going to catch him? I think it's going to take a lot of time. And also we have to hope that his DNA is in the system, in the CODIS system to be able to identify him or unless they go into one of the genealogy sites where they try to identify him by someone in his family that may have submitted for DNA.

I don't think it's impossible because also we have to remember because of the timing of this that we're talking about six in the morning, it is very early. The streets are not packed. So it makes it much easier to follow him via the cameras. So I think that's why the cops and law enforcement has been able to recover so much camera footage of him.

So the timing, it helps law enforcement to try to get so much leads. So I think it's a footage of him. So the timing, it helps law enforcement to try to get so much leads. So I think it's a matter of time. I just don't think it's going to be any time soon. I agree. Again, this is not a professional. Scott Eicher, what do you make of the fact that New York detectives

are now turning to the Minnesota law enforcement. You've got to cover all the bases. Not only what, you know, his work is, you know, why he's in New York. If you leave that untouched, you're missing potential evidence. You talked about the prior threats, according to the wife. Well, let's get back there and talk to the employees there. Let's talk about, you know, what his personal life is like. It could be, you know, a romance killing. You never know until you get further into this type situation. Yeah, I would go with a romance killing, as you just put it, or something motivated in his personal life before I would come up with a far-fetched international espionage, poor guy didn't get coverage on his insurance, hatches, major assassination plot theory. When motives become more and more far-fetched,

they're more and more unlikely to be true. But I can't ignore this. Listen. In February 2024, the Wall Street Journal reports UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is the subject of a Department of Justice antitrust probe. Prominent pension funds in California, including the Hollywood Firefighters Pension Fund, file a federal lawsuit against Thompson and other UnitedHealthcare executives, accusing them of offloading $117 million in company stock before the Department of Justice probe becomes public. The lawsuit claims Thompson knew about the investigation as early as October 2023 and sold 31% of his company shares, making $15 million in profit 11 days before the Wall Street Journal reported their probe sending UnitedHealth stock sinking 5%. Wow. Okay. Money, money, money.

The love of money, the root of all evil. You know, when you're looking at motives, that helps you find the perp. We know that law enforcement in New York now turning toward Minnesota. Why? But I can't ignore all that money that he pocketed to Justice Scott Morgan.

I don't know if you heard this earlier, but Lauren Collin, I believe it was you that stated he had developed some type of algorithm to deny claims. Yes. One of the subsidiaries developed an algorithm where they were accused of not even caring or knowing which claims were being denied. They were just doing this based on the algorithm. But that wasn't him that came up with the algorithm, or was it? It wasn't him in particular. I mean, it was somebody within the company, but I mean, of course he could be targeted. Additionally, going back to when you mentioned the Minnesota police, there was a protest at the company's Minnetonka headquarters this past July,

which led to the arrest of 11 people. Protest about what? Demonstrators accused the company's insurance arm of a systemic practice of refusing to approve care through prior authorization denials or pay for health care through claim denials. So again, these- Okay, Jo Scott, what about it? Is the motive becoming any clearer or is it becoming more murky for you? For me, it's becoming more clear. Oh, yeah, it is becoming more clear. And it's a way that, you know, investigatively, you know, you can kind of pare this thing down relative to motive. And as you always say, we don't have to prove motive, but when you're still searching for somebody that could be an

active shooter out there, it's investigative gold, because that's one of the roads that you need to go down relative to this, try to suss this out. Hey, can I just say one more thing, Nancy, that it's a dead giveaway with this case that is a specific identifier. You know, people can go and buy handguns, you know, and there's going to be a waiting period. But if this suppressor that he has on this weapon is not homemade, he will have to have a handgun platform that's going to have a threaded barrel on it so that the suppressor can be screwed onto it. Now, when you purchase a suppressor, it's actually a bit more rigorous than just buying a handgun. You have to pay a tax in advance of

that purchase. And then you have to wait because the APF comes in and they have a profile on you at that point in time. And you have to create a huge amount of paperwork relative to this. So that one bit in there, provided, of course, this is not some kind of homemade suppressor, that's going to be a big clue as well. Let's take a look at that pro stance the shooter is trying to affect. Clearly right-handed. A right-handed male, white, with a specialized camera backpack. That's a camera backpack. I guess he was using it, Joe Scott, to store the gun and any ammo. But that's a specialized and very expensive, nearly $300 backpack he's got on, Joe Scott. Yeah. And what would be the purpose of that, you that, that you would need that level? You want to make

yourself small, I would think. You wouldn't want to make yourself unnoticeable. One other thing that I've thought about as well, looking at some of this footage, Nancy, is I was really interested if he had layered up on clothing. And I know you prosecuted cases this way before that involved this, where an individual will conduct a shooting and they're prepared going in. They begin to strip their clothes off. Remember, you've got CCTV footage of this guy out and about town. Did he rip his clothes off, that top layer of clothing, dump them? Did he have something else in the bag that he could have changed into

to change his appearance as well? And this so-called mask that he had is not actually a mask. You can still see his nose and his eyes. And, of course, he's barehanded. So it's weird to me that this guy is not fully prepared, but yet it seems as though he wants to be prepared. Again, these are these are little elements, little breadcrumbs along the path that they're going to follow in this case. I'm actually thinking they're going to catch this guy in pretty short order. An Internet super sleuth claims he may have tracked the location of the assassin using City Bike's tracking data.

A data scientist named Riley, who goes by at RTWLZ on X, claims he's been scraping City Bike data every minute and believes he tracks the location of the bike from near the shooting at 644 a.m. and straight to a location at Madison Avenue and 82nd Street at 652 a.m. Riley turns the info over to the NYPD, waiting on the results. It cannot underestimate the power of citizen sleuths, I can tell you that much, especially after Gabby Petito's case. There are nearly 26,000, 26,000 public and private cameras throughout Manhattan. To you, Bill Daley, if you had to wager on what his path was, knowing he went into Central Park on the bike, what would it be? Well, first of all, knowing the way people operate, having observed them over the many years, both in the public and private sector and behaviors of criminals who would be criminals, is that people are very comfortable in areas that they're used to being being in so i would probably think that this person traveled in a place where he felt comfortable where he was kind of able to kind of blend into his home environment not something that's out of

source uh if we're kind of working on this theory there's a couple couple of reports by local media here in new york that perhaps people saw a bicycle and somebody resembling his description exiting the park up in the upper 80s or just maybe 45 minutes later perhaps that's that's the direction that he went in you know I think maybe going back to kind of motive I just want to touch on that for a second because as much as we talk about perhaps if somebody was a former customer or former employee but also in my career I've also seen where we've had these advocates, people who are out there, you mentioned about protests outside the company, but there are people who become invigorated by the fact that they have a cause. And it could be somebody who's following in those footsteps where they're invigorated because they hear all

these things about big insurance and want to take steps on their own. Right now, we are looking for answers, but I know this. I believe he went straight to a subway en route. He shed some of his clothes, as Joe Scott and I were discussing, but he kept the backpack and the shoes. Had to, because the gun will be in the backpack. I'll be scouring every one of those 26,000 cameras till I see a white guy walking along same shoes with a backpack. If you know or think you have any information on this case, if you think you saw something, you're not sure, doesn't matter. Dial 1-800-577-TIPS.

1-800-577-8477. And now we remember an American hero, Police Officer Sergeant Herschel Turner, Moline Acres, PD, Missouri. Herschel struck and killed in the line of duty over 22 years, serving and protecting, survived by wife Donna and seven children. American hero, Sergeant Herschel Turner. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.