Some on social media see suspect in killing of US health insurance firm CEO as folk hero
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A police handout shows the suspect in the killing of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson taking a taxi.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – A grainy image of his face drew comparisons to Hollywood heart-throbs. A jacket similar to the one he is wearing on wanted posters is reportedly flying off shelves. And the words written on the bullets he used to kill a man on a pavement on Dec 4 have become, for some people, a rallying cry.
Three days after a gunman assassinated a top health insurance executive in midtown Manhattan and vanished, the unidentified suspect has, in some quarters, been venerated as something approaching a folk hero.
The authorities have pleaded for help from the public to find the person who killed UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, a father of two children. But in a macabre turn, some people seem to be more interested in rooting for the gunman and thwarting the police’s efforts.
The Upper West Side hostel where officials believe he stayed during his time in the city has reportedly received a deluge of bad reviews online, with some people calling the workers there “narcs”. The business has been cooperating with police.
And although high-profile crimes have in recent years mobilised internet sleuths to find answers, civilian efforts to track down the killer have appeared muted. Instead, the executive’s killing has released a tide of online frustration towards the health insurance industry, with some people voicing support for the gunman.
It is unclear what motivated the killing or whether it was tied to Mr Thompson’s work in the industry. Police have yet to identify the shooter, and he remained at large on Dec 7.
The killing occurred early on Dec 4 outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel. Police said their assumption is the gunman left the city by bus about an hour after the shooting because they have video of him entering a bus depot but not leaving it.
But the clue that has ignited the most chatter online and appears to have garnered the gunman a following are the words officials said they found scribbled in permanent marker on bullet casings discovered at the scene: “depose”, “deny” and “delay”.
The words may be a reference to the tactics used by insurers of all kinds to avoid paying claims.
In some circles, those words alone have been enough for people to openly root for the shooter and hope he escapes law enforcement.
A poster is attached to a lamp post near the scene where Mr Brian Thompson was shot dead in New York City.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Look-alike contest
Mr Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks online threats, said the internet rhetoric left experts “pretty disturbed” by the glorification of the murder and the “lionisation of the shooter”.
In a report, the institute found that of the top 10 most-engaged posts on X about the shooting, six “either expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing or denigrated the victim”.
The dynamic is similar to the discourse that often emerges after a mass shooting on websites like 4chan and 8chan, where perpetrators of extreme violence become memes themselves, Mr Goldenberg noted, “but what’s disturbing about this is it’s mainstream”.
“It’s being framed as some opening blow in a broader class war, which is very concerning as it heightens the threat environment for similar actors to engage in similar acts of violence,” he said.
On Dec 7, about half a dozen men gathered in the December cold at Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan to participate in a look-alike contest for the gunman. One had the words “deny, defend, depose” on his jacket.
The contest drew around 30 people who heard about the event through fliers advertised on social media platforms, including X and Bluesky.
The winner, a 39-year-old who does data entry for a labour union, declined to give his name but said that he celebrates the actions of the gunman. He believes it is important to make folk understand how people are hurting under the healthcare system.
About half a dozen men participated in a look-alike contest for the gunman who killed Mr Brian Thompson.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
For executives of large corporations, particularly those in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, the killing heightened their safety concerns. Hours after the shooting, dozens of private security officers joined a call to discuss additional protective measures for executives.
But for others, the message that the internet has assigned to the shooter’s motives has resonated and spread.
More than 160km away from Manhattan, in a Philadelphia alley, the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” were spray-painted on a building. NYTIMES
