Comedian Bill Burr compared United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson to a ‘gangster’ while revealing the possible ‘motive’ behind the shocking murder of the exec outside a NYC hotel.
The 50-year-old Thompson was in Midtown Manhattan to attend the company’s Investor Day conference last week when he was gunned down by a masked assailant outside the Hilton in the early morning hours.
Burr, 56, initially expressed his sympathy for Thompson and his family but revealed how his feelings soon shifted as he learned more about the circumstances surrounding Thompson’s career.
‘I was sitting there reading an article, and a guy was like, “Oh my god, he’s such a great guy; he had a wife and kids, and he’s such a great guy,”‘ Burr began.
‘And then you find out, he and the other guys he’s working for are getting sued for $121 million for dumping a stock, and not letting the other people know.’
Burr didn’t mince words about his view of corporate misconduct.
‘It’s like there’s your motive,’ he said about the targeted killing. ‘They’re gangsters, dude. And then one of them gets whacked or something, they’re like, I was good, he was such a good guy. It’s a dirty game.’
The legal controversy referenced by Burr refers to a lawsuit accusing Thompson and other executives of insider trading.
The case involves allegations that they sold off company stock ahead of public disclosures that negatively affected share prices, leaving other investors in the dark.
Thompson had been a prominent figure in the healthcare industry, serving as CEO of United Healthcare, a division of UnitedHealth Group, since 2021 with his murder sending shockwaves through the health insurance world.
As the frustrating search for the killer got underway for a fifth day on Sunday, investigators reckoned with a tantalizing contradiction: they have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma.
One conclusion they are confident of, however: It was a targeted attack, not a random one.
They know he ambushed Thompson at 6:44 a.m. Wednesday as the executive arrived at the Hilton for his company’s annual investor conference, using a 9 mm pistol that resembled the guns farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise.
They know ammunition found near Thompson´s body bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics.
The fact that the shooter knew UnitedHealthcare group was holding a conference at the hotel and what route Thompson might take to get there suggested that he could possibly be a disgruntled employee or client, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
Over the weekend, police divers were seen searching a pond in Central Park, where the killer fled after the shooting.
Officers have been scouring the park for days for any possible clues and found his backpack there Friday.
They didn’t immediately reveal what, if anything, it contained but said it would be tested and analyzed.
Early on Sunday afternoon, police declined to comment on the contents of the backpack, or on the results of the search in the pond, saying no updates were planned.
Investigators have urged patience, saying the process of logging evidence that stands up in court isn’t as quick as it looks like on TV.
Hundreds of detectives are combing through video recordings and social media, vetting tips from the public and interviewing people who might have information, including Thompson’s family and coworkers and the shooter’s randomly assigned roommates at the Manhattan hostel where he stayed.
Investigators caught a break when they came across security camera images of an unguarded moment at the hostel in which he briefly showed his face.
Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, police say, it appears he left the city by bus soon after the shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown.
He was seen on video at an uptown bus station about 45 minutes later, Kenny said.
A New York City Police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park while searching for a backpack police believe was dropped in the park by the person suspected of killing Thompson
With the high-profile search expanding across state lines, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to $10,000 that the NYPD has offered.
Police say they believe the suspect acted alone.
Police distributed the images to news outlets and on social media but so far haven’t been able to ID him using facial recognition – possibly because of the angle of the images or limitations on how the NYPD is allowed to use that technology, Kenny said.
Late on Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi.
The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask.