The words "deny," "defend" and "depose" were discovered by detectives on the shell casings found at the scene where Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down in New York City yesterday.
Thompson was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack” by a chillingly methodical killer who used a firearm with a silencer, police said.
The 50 year old CEO was repeatedly shot by a masked gunman who had been waiting outside the Hilton hotel along Sixth Avenue, where the CEO was hosting an investors’ conference, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Law enforcement sources said it appeared the shooter not only used a silencer, but was proficient enough with the gun to smoothly clear it after a jam to continue firing.
The killer’s apparently measured actions — including an escape on an e-bike into Central Park, where surveillance camera coverage is spotty — could be undercut by him apparently dropping a key clue: a cellphone.
Investigators firmly believe a phone found in an alleyway near the Hilton belongs to the gunman, and obtained a search warrant to comb through its contents.
The Hal Turner Radio Show has obtained security video footage from a building at the shooting scene, and the entire shooting is clearly visible on the video, below.
WARNING -
This video shows an actual shooting murder. While it is not gory, it is real. Viewer discretion advised.
The wife of the slain said Wednesday that her husband had been getting threats before he was gunned down.
“There had been some threats,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News in her first comments since her husband was murdered early Wednesday.
Editorial Opinion
The Internet is already awash with vicious comments about the Insurance CEO being killed, with some outright celebrating the killing. It seems to indicate widespread and generalized hatred of Insurance companies, and their Executives.
Much of the vitriol being spewed, is also about "the rich" - with class-warfare justifications for the killing. Yet, none of these people seemed to stop to realize, this CEO is a person, a person with a family, with children, who loved him and whom he loved.
Those celebrating this killing are voiding the humanity of the victim; the celebrations are disgusting to me.
The fact that police found the words "Deny, Defend, Depose" on the shell casings used by the killer seem, on its face, to indicate that the killer is a person whose claim was denied by the Health Insurance company. If not the actual claimant, perhaps a family member of a claimant?
Speculation about the words all leans toward this possibility. For instance "Deny" could mean coverage or a claim. "Defend" could mean the Insurance company defended its denial. Depose could indicate there is a lawsuit pending over such a situation.
While this is all speculation, it does seem logical, and that could lead to identifying the killer. Police will likely look at how many claims have been denied over, let's say, the past year or two? How many of those denials were challenged, and which ones were defended by the company? The last word "Depose" really seems to narrow the scope because how many of the denied claims have gone to lawsuit - and how many of those lawsuits are in, or near, the Deposition stage?
All that probing will narrow the possible suspects.
Moreover, the Police are keen on a cell phone they found in a nearby alleyway. Is the owner of that phone named in any of the denied, defended claims? Is the cell phone owner named as a Plaintiff in a lawsuit? Is the cell phone owner a family member of any Plaintiff? The list of suspects gets narrowed even further.
If Police are correct that the cellphone may belong to the killer, then even if it is a throw-away phone, it will likely have fingerprints and/or DNA on it.
Sooner or later, the NYPD is highly likely to make an arrest. NYPD isn't stupid and they don't fool around. In every sense, they are the absolute premier law enforcement agency in this country - surpassing even the FBI in size (38,000 Uniformed Officers) and in resources.
This killing took place in one of the most heavily visited parts of downtown New York City. A hub of tourism and big business.
Hundreds of thousands of people traverse that area regularly. The public is already demanding fast action by police to restore security; especially since the killing took place in front of one of the premier Hilton Hotels and very near to world famous Rockefeller Center.
The priority being given to this matter is evidenced by the fact that the Police Commissioner herself gave the initial Press Conference on this case. For the Commissioner of the New York Police Department to come out of her office at One Police Plaza to give a Press Conference, means the case is getting HUGE attention from NYPD.
Dropping that cellphone . . . . even HAVING a cell phone on his person while committing a murder -- was a mistake this killer will likely regret very soon.
