“Someone defied the system”. The murder of the head of an American health insurance company is celebrated on the networks

For example, the most popular posts on the X social network regarding Thompson’s murder “either expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing, or denigrated the victim,” according to The Financial Times, an analysis by Rutgers University in New Jersey states. According to the newspaper, similar posts were also spread on other platforms, such as TikTok.

A number of social media users reacted to the news of the murder with morbid glee, claiming that health insurance companies had left them in the lurch. “I’m sorry, prior approval is required to express condolences and prayers,” read one of the repeated posts on the X platform. “Unfortunately, my condolences are offline,” read another comment below a video of the killer repeatedly shooting at the boss, according to CNN. UnitedHealthcare.

For example, journalist Taylor Lorenzová, a former columnist for The Washington Post, who now creates her own podcast for Vox Media, joined the celebratory comments.

In an interview with TMZ, she said that “UnitedHealthcare has murdered thousands of Americans” and that it is “natural” that people want to hurt the people who run the health insurance companies. “It’s like a victory, it feels like someone stood up to this barbaric, evil, cruel, violent system,” said the journalist.

“And people wonder why we want these managers to die,” Lorenzová also wrote on the Bluesky network to a shared article with information that another health insurance company stops paying for anesthesia for the entire duration of operations if the duration of the medical procedure exceeds a certain time.

The killer who waited for Thompson in New York’s Manhattan in front of the Hilton Hotel, where the head of the insurance company had a meeting, still eludes criminal investigators. Footage from the security cameras shows that the shooter first hit Thompson in the back and then continued shooting as he approached him. The weapon equipped with a silencer got stuck at one point, but the apparently experienced shooter was able to quickly remove the defect and continued shooting, while the victim tried in vain to crawl away.

So far, the police have also published images from footage from street cameras, in which the suspect’s face can be seen. Criminal investigators also obtained his fingerprint from a bottle of water that he bought at a nearby Starbucks cafe and then threw away. A phone was also found, which the investigators believe was used by the killer once. Thompson, like other UnitedHealthcare executives, faced threats, the company admitted.

Words such as “depose”, “deny” and “defend” were engraved directly on the bullets and cartridges left behind by the killer. In this context, the American media notice striking similarities with the title of the book “Delay, Deny, Defend” (Delay, Deny, Defend) with the eloquent subtitle: “Why insurance companies don’t want to pay claims and what you can do about it”, which was written in 2010 by Jay M. Feinman of Rutgers University.

According to the New York Post, the shooter arrived in Manhattan on November 24 by bus, which arrived from Atlanta, Georgia, via several other stops. In connection with the case, the police have already searched two New York hostels.