December 5, 2024 • 10 mins
The WOR Morning Show speaks with Rory O’Neil about the murder of the United Healthcare CEO. Rory talks about the latest details coming out about the killing the person who did the shooting.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. I'm Larry MENTI. It is absolutely a story,
a murder that is captivating the city, is captivating the nation.
And it happened right across the street from where we
are right now, and it happened while we were on
the air. Yesterday, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot to
(00:23):
death in what police are calling a targeted shooting. A
man with a mask on killed him six twenty five
in the morning, with a lot of people around, a
lot of witnesses, and then took off into Central Park
on an e bike and hasn't that we know of,
(00:45):
hasn't been seen since. So let's get the latest on
the investigation and find out what is happening now as
we speak. Rory O'Neil is woor, National correspondent, he's been
covering this, Rory, do we know Do we know anything
about the investigation at this point?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, one of the new twists happened overnight. ABC News
was first to report that the shellcasings recovered from the
scene some had writing on them, including the words deny, defend,
and depose That may suggest that these are related to
some of the actions taken by United Healthcare in denying
(01:25):
a person's claim. The widow of Brian Thompson has confirmed
that they were the threat of the target of some threats.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
She did not know the nature of the threats.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Whether or not it was from an angry employee, someone
who had been denied healthcare coverage, or what the nature
of those threats were, but she did confirm that she
was aware that they had happened. But at the time
of the shooting, Thompson seemed to be walking through Midtown
all on his own without any kind of security.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, and they a lot of people saw him. They
said he was almost there overnight. The guy that the
o what I'm talking about is the sh shooter at
this point, and that he seemed to know it was
well advertised. But he seemed to know that Brian Thompson
was not staying at the Hilton because right, why would
he be waiting out front for him to show.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Up, right? So he knew he was staying at a
different hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
He was aware that the investor conference was happening at
that Hilton, at least that's what we believe. The Obviously
they canceled the event for the day, but this would
have been a big deal, a big day for Thompson,
fifty year old CEO of the largest health provider, a
health insurance company in the country, flew in from Minnesota
to have this meeting with the investors. You know, tried
(02:39):
to explain to them and these are the hedge fund
manager kind of guys, right, who are Wall Street insiders
who are buying up this stock. So it would have
been his job, Thompson's job to say, hey, twenty twenty
five is going to be a great year for us.
So you can imagine the pressure of what was going
through his mind thinking about the meeting ahead when suddenly
this gunman's steps out and shoots shoots them in the
(03:02):
back right.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And then seemingly just disappears. I mean, they know he
jumped on an e bike, they know he went to
Central Park, and not much has been released since then,
so maybe they do know where he is, maybe they're waiting,
but it does seem like he had this really well
planned out and that he just disappeared in Central Park.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know, some of the best surveillance footage we actually
have is from the Starbucks apparently he was buying He
made a stop at Starbucks before about an hour before.
If he paid with a credit card, debit card, they
can trace that instantly. We've gotten reports that a cell
phone was also recovered from the scene, as well as
a bottle of water and maybe a power bar or
something that was also bought at that Starbucks purchase. So
(03:45):
there could be a lot of physical evidence and digital evidence,
digital fingerprints in addition to actual fingerprints.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That could lead them to this suspect.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And I suspect that with the surveillance footage and that
Starbucks information, they may have an idea.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
As to who this is. It's just a struggle now
trying to find him.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I'd love to see that surveillance tape from inside
the Starbucks and whether he left that mask on the
whole time, because that might be the only image they're
going to have from him. But I can't imagine that
he planned this out so well. It seems. I can't
believe that he would leave behind a cell phone. We
don't do we know at this point whether it's his.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We haven't gotten a whole lot of information about that.
But for a person, it's a lot of these conflicting signals.
Right here is a gunman who has a silencer on
his weapon, which is unusual. Apparently the gun looked like
it jammed and he was able to get it functioning
once again. And he seemed pretty calm and cool on
the video carrying out the shooting. But at the same time,
(04:47):
you leave behind a bottle of water and a candy
wrapper and a cell phone, and then you're on an
e bike and maybe all that stuff can be traced.
It looks like a professional hit job. But then that
those kinds of acts, and clearly that's the work of
an amateur.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
It's fascinating that you and this has brought up many
many times about a professional hit job, which would mean
that the person that wanted this man dead would have
the resources to be able to hire a professional.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right, all these different factors, and then we got the
news of these messages left on the shell casings. I mean, clearly,
the person, the assassin, let's call him what he is,
the assassin, had an agenda in this case.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right and so, and it's interesting because you know, I'm
going to keep asking questions, but it sounds like after
that scene, after all the things we saw in that scene,
and after the evidence that was left behind, which may
or may not lead anywhere, after he disappeared in Central
Park as far as we all know, he just disappeared.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Right and he had that distinctive backpack that he was wearing.
I think some people online have identified it as a
peak backpack. You know.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The covering of his face, As you said, wearing a
jacket with a hood and a face covering in yesterday's
cold weather wasn't particularly unusual. Wearing dark gray and black
also certainly not unusual. So they're hoping that people recognize
him from his build, recognize that backpack, and they put
two and two together to help investigators identify him and
again then try to find where this person is.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You may know more about this than I do, because
there was a rather large opening in that mask, in
that ski mask all safe for the lack of a
better term, Can you do digital facial identification from what
we see?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's well, I think that would depend on how much.
Now we have seen images, especially that Starbucks video, you
get his eyes and his full exposed nose. Others have
the mask up covering his nose, so some footage is
better than others.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
It's a lot there.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I don't know there's enough though, to reconstruct an entire
face digitally.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
But I think you know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But again, you could recognize people from the size of
their bill, their shoulder with you, whether or.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not they're fat, skinny, tall, short.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think a lot of people might be able to
recognize that person without seeing every detail of it, of
his face.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You know, certainly one of those stories where everybody has
speculation about. And I think that you alluded to this
a moment ago, but right after it happened, not just myself,
but a couple of other people here said almost immediately,
it is going to be somebody disgruntled because they something
wasn't paid and possibly somebody and their family died and
(07:33):
they felt like they didn't get the healthcare that that
person deserves because they didn't get the insurance money to
take care of that person. I mean, for someone to
go to this length to kill this man and then
walk away, you would at least have to start at
the fact that something traumatic happened to him, or something
(07:55):
awful happened to him, and he blames this man right.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Also don't know if this man was already on police
radar from the earlier threats the family had received. It's
possible that as those were being investigated, likely in Minnesota
where he had lived, whether or not they had already
built possibly a list of suspects who were making these threats,
and then it may make it easier to narrow down
(08:20):
as part of their investigation who was responsible yesterday. But
to find shell casings with the words deny, defend, depose again,
that suggests that this is related to the claims that may.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Have been denied by United Health Group.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, that seemed to make it personal. You're right, those
words made it personal, Rory O'Neil. I know we're early
on in investigation, but I really appreciate your expertise on this.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Thanks, Larry. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I'll talk to you. Rory O'Neill, WR, National Correspondent. It's
really difficult for people that are covering this case right
now because the police obviously know a lot more than
they're going to let out right now, and they may
know who the guy is and we don't know. You're
never gonna know. So even though it sounds like they
(09:12):
don't have that person, I've covered so many not a
case like this exactly, but I've covered so many murder
cases where very early on they know who it is.
It's twenty four hours later. I can't believe we haven't
you know, we don't know where he is. Well, maybe
they do know where he is, but they haven't gone
to him yet. You know what I'm saying is they
don't know who it is that you believe they don't
(09:36):
know who it is, but they know who he is
and they just have to try to track him down
at this point. And so my feeling is that is
probably going to be the case. I would be shocked
if in the next week he's not arrested somewhere. Why
does Major League Baseball keep messing with the rules. The
(09:57):
latest proposal is well bonkers. We'll tell you all about
it next
Welcome back. I'm Larry MENTI. It is absolutely a story,
a murder that is captivating the city, is captivating the nation.
And it happened right across the street from where we
are right now, and it happened while we were on
the air. Yesterday, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot to
(00:23):
death in what police are calling a targeted shooting. A
man with a mask on killed him six twenty five
in the morning, with a lot of people around, a
lot of witnesses, and then took off into Central Park
on an e bike and hasn't that we know of,
(00:45):
hasn't been seen since. So let's get the latest on
the investigation and find out what is happening now as
we speak. Rory O'Neil is woor, National correspondent, he's been
covering this, Rory, do we know Do we know anything
about the investigation at this point?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, one of the new twists happened overnight. ABC News
was first to report that the shellcasings recovered from the
scene some had writing on them, including the words deny, defend,
and depose That may suggest that these are related to
some of the actions taken by United Healthcare in denying
(01:25):
a person's claim. The widow of Brian Thompson has confirmed
that they were the threat of the target of some threats.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
She did not know the nature of the threats.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Whether or not it was from an angry employee, someone
who had been denied healthcare coverage, or what the nature
of those threats were, but she did confirm that she
was aware that they had happened. But at the time
of the shooting, Thompson seemed to be walking through Midtown
all on his own without any kind of security.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, and they a lot of people saw him. They
said he was almost there overnight. The guy that the
o what I'm talking about is the sh shooter at
this point, and that he seemed to know it was
well advertised. But he seemed to know that Brian Thompson
was not staying at the Hilton because right, why would
he be waiting out front for him to show.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Up, right? So he knew he was staying at a
different hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
He was aware that the investor conference was happening at
that Hilton, at least that's what we believe. The Obviously
they canceled the event for the day, but this would
have been a big deal, a big day for Thompson,
fifty year old CEO of the largest health provider, a
health insurance company in the country, flew in from Minnesota
to have this meeting with the investors. You know, tried
(02:39):
to explain to them and these are the hedge fund
manager kind of guys, right, who are Wall Street insiders
who are buying up this stock. So it would have
been his job, Thompson's job to say, hey, twenty twenty
five is going to be a great year for us.
So you can imagine the pressure of what was going
through his mind thinking about the meeting ahead when suddenly
this gunman's steps out and shoots shoots them in the
(03:02):
back right.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And then seemingly just disappears. I mean, they know he
jumped on an e bike, they know he went to
Central Park, and not much has been released since then,
so maybe they do know where he is, maybe they're waiting,
but it does seem like he had this really well
planned out and that he just disappeared in Central Park.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know, some of the best surveillance footage we actually
have is from the Starbucks apparently he was buying He
made a stop at Starbucks before about an hour before.
If he paid with a credit card, debit card, they
can trace that instantly. We've gotten reports that a cell
phone was also recovered from the scene, as well as
a bottle of water and maybe a power bar or
something that was also bought at that Starbucks purchase. So
(03:45):
there could be a lot of physical evidence and digital evidence,
digital fingerprints in addition to actual fingerprints.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That could lead them to this suspect.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And I suspect that with the surveillance footage and that
Starbucks information, they may have an idea.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
As to who this is. It's just a struggle now
trying to find him.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I'd love to see that surveillance tape from inside
the Starbucks and whether he left that mask on the
whole time, because that might be the only image they're
going to have from him. But I can't imagine that
he planned this out so well. It seems. I can't
believe that he would leave behind a cell phone. We
don't do we know at this point whether it's his.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
We haven't gotten a whole lot of information about that.
But for a person, it's a lot of these conflicting signals.
Right here is a gunman who has a silencer on
his weapon, which is unusual. Apparently the gun looked like
it jammed and he was able to get it functioning
once again. And he seemed pretty calm and cool on
the video carrying out the shooting. But at the same time,
(04:47):
you leave behind a bottle of water and a candy
wrapper and a cell phone, and then you're on an
e bike and maybe all that stuff can be traced.
It looks like a professional hit job. But then that
those kinds of acts, and clearly that's the work of
an amateur.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
It's fascinating that you and this has brought up many
many times about a professional hit job, which would mean
that the person that wanted this man dead would have
the resources to be able to hire a professional.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right, all these different factors, and then we got the
news of these messages left on the shell casings. I mean, clearly,
the person, the assassin, let's call him what he is,
the assassin, had an agenda in this case.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right and so, and it's interesting because you know, I'm
going to keep asking questions, but it sounds like after
that scene, after all the things we saw in that scene,
and after the evidence that was left behind, which may
or may not lead anywhere, after he disappeared in Central
Park as far as we all know, he just disappeared.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Right and he had that distinctive backpack that he was wearing.
I think some people online have identified it as a
peak backpack. You know.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The covering of his face, As you said, wearing a
jacket with a hood and a face covering in yesterday's
cold weather wasn't particularly unusual. Wearing dark gray and black
also certainly not unusual. So they're hoping that people recognize
him from his build, recognize that backpack, and they put
two and two together to help investigators identify him and
again then try to find where this person is.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You may know more about this than I do, because
there was a rather large opening in that mask, in
that ski mask all safe for the lack of a
better term, Can you do digital facial identification from what
we see?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's well, I think that would depend on how much.
Now we have seen images, especially that Starbucks video, you
get his eyes and his full exposed nose. Others have
the mask up covering his nose, so some footage is
better than others.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
It's a lot there.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I don't know there's enough though, to reconstruct an entire
face digitally.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
But I think you know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But again, you could recognize people from the size of
their bill, their shoulder with you, whether or.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not they're fat, skinny, tall, short.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think a lot of people might be able to
recognize that person without seeing every detail of it, of
his face.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You know, certainly one of those stories where everybody has
speculation about. And I think that you alluded to this
a moment ago, but right after it happened, not just myself,
but a couple of other people here said almost immediately,
it is going to be somebody disgruntled because they something
wasn't paid and possibly somebody and their family died and
(07:33):
they felt like they didn't get the healthcare that that
person deserves because they didn't get the insurance money to
take care of that person. I mean, for someone to
go to this length to kill this man and then
walk away, you would at least have to start at
the fact that something traumatic happened to him, or something
(07:55):
awful happened to him, and he blames this man right.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Also don't know if this man was already on police
radar from the earlier threats the family had received. It's
possible that as those were being investigated, likely in Minnesota
where he had lived, whether or not they had already
built possibly a list of suspects who were making these threats,
and then it may make it easier to narrow down
(08:20):
as part of their investigation who was responsible yesterday. But
to find shell casings with the words deny, defend, depose again,
that suggests that this is related to the claims that may.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Have been denied by United Health Group.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, that seemed to make it personal. You're right, those
words made it personal, Rory O'Neil. I know we're early
on in investigation, but I really appreciate your expertise on this.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Thanks, Larry. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I'll talk to you. Rory O'Neill, WR, National Correspondent. It's
really difficult for people that are covering this case right
now because the police obviously know a lot more than
they're going to let out right now, and they may
know who the guy is and we don't know. You're
never gonna know. So even though it sounds like they
(09:12):
don't have that person, I've covered so many not a
case like this exactly, but I've covered so many murder
cases where very early on they know who it is.
It's twenty four hours later. I can't believe we haven't
you know, we don't know where he is. Well, maybe
they do know where he is, but they haven't gone
to him yet. You know what I'm saying is they
don't know who it is that you believe they don't
(09:36):
know who it is, but they know who he is
and they just have to try to track him down
at this point. And so my feeling is that is
probably going to be the case. I would be shocked
if in the next week he's not arrested somewhere. Why
does Major League Baseball keep messing with the rules. The
(09:57):
latest proposal is well bonkers. We'll tell you all about
it next
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