NYC NOW - Midday News: Cryptic Clues in UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting, Lanternflies Thrive in NYC, Bronx Tree Lighting, and Concerns Over Trans Students Protections

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Police say shell casings from the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had cryptic words scrawled on them. Meanwhile, spotted lanternflies are thriving in New York City, raising concerns about their growing destruction. Also, the Bronx celebrates the holidays with its annual tree lighting near Yankee Stadium Thursday night. And President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to roll back protections for trans students have New York advocates and parents speaking out.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, December 5th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. The NYPD says cryptic words were scrawled on the shell casings from the bullets that struck and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson yesterday in Midtown. Police didn't provide details on what was written, but confirm reports that they include the terms deny, defend, and depose. Police have not arrested anyone in connection with Thompson's killing, but they say he was specifically targeted. Thompson was shot and killed in front of the Midtown Manhattan Hilton Hotel as United Healthcare prepared for its annual Investors Conference.

Spotted lantern flies are thriving in New York City despite calls to stomp them out of existence. An NYU study finds that the population is living longer than when the invasive species was first spotted in the U.S. in 2014. These longer lives mean the spotted lanternfly can produce more eggs and cause more destruction. NYU biology professor Kristen Winchell is the author of that study. If an insect is thriving in New York City and ends up on a car, on a plane, on a train, and then hops off in the next city over, it's probably going to lower that bar of can it invade? Researchers say New York City's warming climate is helping the varian. gracious pest adapt and spread.

Up next, the search continues for the gunmen who fatally shot United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan Hotel. The latest details after the break. Police are continuing to investigate the killing of 50-year-old Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare. He was shot outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday. My colleague Michael Hill spoke with reporter Brittany Krigstein for the latest. Hi, Brittany. Police keep saying that this was all the signs of premeditated target. What about a motive? Do they, have they offered anything about that yet?

We don't have any official idea just yet. We've been hearing lots of things from all different reports. Thompson's wife did tell NBC news that he'd been receiving threats, but she didn't specify who they were coming from. police officials obviously told us yesterday they were talking to Thompson's co-workers, family members, friends, searching his hotel room, anything they can do to look for clues. Now, as we've said, Thompson was a health insurance company executive. What else do we know about him? So he lived in Minnesota. He was in town for an annual investor conference, which of course was called off after the shooting.

He leaves behind his wife. He has two children. And he became CEO of United Health Care in 20. We know it's the country's largest private health insurer. The company, of course, says it's saddened and in shock by his death. But under Thompson's leadership, United Healthcare has also faced increasing scrutiny over denials of coverage on one part. And his death has led to a firestorm on social media with many users taking the opportunity

to criticize the health insurance industry. I'm wondering. We mentioned that he, the show. Shewter apparently got away on an electric city bike. So how are police trying to track down this suspect? Right. So there's been a little bit of discrepancy over whether it was a city bike or an e-bike. But police are saying that they're pulling out all the stops.

If it is a city bike, of course, they'll be collaborating with the company to use the GPS tracking system to look for the bike. But they're, of course, reviewing surveillance footage from the area. They're also maybe using drones in Central Park, which, which was the place that the shooter was last seen. But of course we know Central Park is a very complicated place to look for somebody. So they're operating maybe more than 100 drones around the park by a team of some 60 officers. Police said they're really trying to focus in on this gray backpack that video footage shows the suspect was wearing at the time of the shooting. They also said they recovered a cell phone from the scene, but they haven't confirmed yet whether it belonged to the suspect.

Brittany, I'm wondering, as you describe this and the person who did this being on some kind of an electric bike and getting away, I'm wondering, police must be capturing a lot of the video that may be a long 6th Avenue from different businesses and so forth to get any clue that they can gather. Yes, of course. Police have emphasized that they're just scrutiny, like you said, every possible opportunity. to find video, to find evidence of where this person was. They did release at some point yesterday some photos of the suspect kind of closer up photos that appear to have been taken in a Starbucks, potentially before the shooting, showing him in dark clothing with a face mask on. So they're, of course, circulating those images, hoping somebody comes forward with some information or hoping that there's a match, you know, somebody sees something and lets them know.

And of course, we here at WMIC we're monitoring this very closely. As soon as there are any updates, we will provide them. WNMIC is Brittany Craigstein on the story there, the latest on the shooting of Brian Thompson. They're the CEO of United Health Care. Brittany, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Michael. President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to roll back protections for trans students. Education reporter Jessica Gold has been speaking with New York City.

advocates and parents of trans kids anxiously awaiting Trump's inauguration. Jess in his speech at Madison Square Garden, now President Elect Trump, pledged to, quote, get transgender insanity out of schools. What are you hearing from parents of trans kids? Well, they're really worried. They're worried about their kids. Their kids are worried. Gender affirming health care is top of mind right now. And some families traveled to D.C. today for the Supreme Court case, challenging Tennessee's ban on gender affirming care for minors. But I'm also hearing concerns about trans kids' experiences in schools here in New York if Trump follows through with his plans. What our parents worried might change in schools?

So right now, New York City and New York State have policies that support students' gender identity and gender expression. That extends to names and pronouns and bathroom access and sports teams. So kids can play on teams based on their gender identity. when it differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. These are protections that trans students and their parents and advocates have fought for. And when a local community education council in Manhattan called for the city to review those rules and maybe reconsider the policy, it created a massive counter protest. And the education department strongly rejected that effort.

Now, Jess, Title IX is a thing that folks might hear about as it relates to this conversation. the law that bars sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding. Last spring, the Biden administration updated Title IX so that discrimination by gender identity is explicitly banned at schools. President-elect Trump has said he'll reverse Biden's changes to Title IX on day one. If that happened, how would that affect New York schools? Advocates I spoke to at the New York Civil Liberties Union say changes to Title IX could go a couple of ways. In one scenario, the Trump administration could say Title IX does not extend to gender expression and identity. So that would be a rejection of the Biden administration's changes. Or the new administration could go further than that

and say, for example, that allowing trans girls to play on teams discriminates against cisgender girls. Now, either way, there are human rights laws on the state and city level that protect gender identity at schools and the Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution that passed in November, that also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. So there are some protections in place. So we could be in a situation, right, where state and city law is at odds with the Trump administration's interpretation of federal law. If that's the case, what happens? The experts I talk to expect a lot of litigation, and that would probably tie up any changes in court. But there are also concerns that the Trump administration could withhold funding

from New York schools that don't comply with its rules. And that could have a serious impact on education. Also, parents, educators, and advocates that I talked to said the current rhetoric on these issues is already having a serious impact on trans children's mental health. And it's distracting them, making it difficult for them to learn in school. I spoke with Elena Daniels' who is co-founder of transformative schools, which is an after-school program for trans students. And here's what she said. If students don't feel safe at school, they can't learn math, reading, writing.

And she says things were far from perfect before the new presidential administration, even with all these guidelines that New York State and New York City already has in place. And she says trans kids often still face discrimination. She worries it's about to get worse. That's education reporter Jessica Gould. Thanks so much for talking to us. Thank you. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this evening.