The perpetrator is still missing, and his motive has not been made public.
Leonard Wilhelmus,
Yrjö Kokkonen,
Eva Sarlin
17:56•Updated 19:01
The CEO of a huge insurance company was killed in front of a luxury hotel in Manhattan in downtown New York.
The extraordinary murder has received enormous media attention in the United States.
collected the answers to four questions about a special case.
1. Who was the murdered Brian Thompson?
Thompson was the CEO of the United Health Care insurance company in the United States. The company is the largest provider of health insurance in the United States.
The insurance company’s parent company, United Health Group, is the eighth largest company in the world in terms of turnover, according to the US business magazine Fortune.
Thompson has worked for the company since 2004. He has two sons and a wife.
The company describes Thompson as a valued colleague and friend.
– Brian’s family and loved ones are in our hearts and thoughts, the company wrote in the announcement.
2. How did the killing happen?
Brian Thompson was arriving at United Health Care’s annual investor conference, which was scheduled to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan.
A masked gunman waited for Thompson outside the hotel on Sixth Avenue and shot him several times from behind.
Before his deed, the killer had visited the Starbucks cafe next door.
The gunman first fled the scene on foot, but then took an electric bicycle from 55th Street. The killer rode an electric bike along Kuudetta Avenue to Keskuspuisto, where he disappeared.
3. What is known about the author?
Plenty of surveillance camera images have been obtained of the killer, but he has not been identified so far.
The man was wearing a light brown or cream colored hoodie. He had a dark face mask and a gray backpack on his back.
According to the New York police, he is a “light-skinned man”.
Police have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
According to the police, the killer’s actions indicate that he was an experienced shooter.
According to CNN’s gun experts, the gun’s trigger mechanism appears to have jammed after each shot.
The shooter seems to know guns because he can easily fix a jammed pistol.
4. What is known about the possible motive?
The motive for the act has not yet been made public.
According to the police, the act was pre-planned, and its target was specifically Thompson.
Thompson’s wife has said that her husband had received threats. The wife did not know the exact details of the threats, but remembered that they were related to insurance premiums.
The company led by Thompson provides insurance to tens of millions of Americans
The police have found 9 mm shell casings at the scene.
According to information from the ABC News news channel, words such as “deny” were found on the casings [kiistä] “defend” [puolusta] and “depose” [syökse vallasta].