New York CEO shooting: Some on social media see Brian Thompson’s killer as a folk hero

The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the back of a taxi on the morning of the shooting, December 4, 2024. Photo / NYPD via The New York Times

A grainy image of his face drew comparisons to Hollywood heartthrobs. A jacket similar to the one he’s wearing on wanted posters is reportedly flying off the shelves. And the words written on the bullets he used to kill a man in cold blood on a footpath have become, for some people, a rallying cry.

Three days after a shooter 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.

Authorities have pleaded for help from the public to find the person who killed UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, who was a husband and 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 the unknown man 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.

NYPD officers search Central Park for evidence on December 6, 2024. Photo / Jeenah Moon, The New York Times

And although high-profile crimes have in recent years mobilised internet sleuths hellbent on finding answers, civilian efforts to find Thompson’s killer have appeared muted. Instead, the executive’s killing has released a tide of online frustration toward the health insurance industry, with some people even voicing their support for the gunman.

It is unclear what motivated the killing or whether it was tied to Thompson’s work in the industry. Police have yet to identify the shooter, and he remained at large as of Saturday (Sunday NZT).

The killing, which occurred around 6.45am on Wednesday, just outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, incited an immediate citywide search by law enforcement. Police officials have said that their assumption is that the gunman left the city by bus about an hour after he shot Thompson because they have video of him entering a bus depot but not leaving it.

The shooter left a trail of evidence for police to track: a distinctive backpack abandoned in Central Park; a water bottle with DNA found at the crime scene; and a collage of surveillance video of him throughout the city, including a photo of him with his mask down at the hostel.

But the clue that has ignited the most chatter online, and that appears to have garnered the gunman a following, are the words officials say they found scribbled in permanent marker on bullet casings discovered at the scene: “depose”, “deny” and “delay”. Although the words could have multiple meanings, they may be a reference to the tactics used by insurers of all kinds to avoid paying claims.

Investigators outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Brian Thompson was fatally shot, on December 4. Photo / Karsten Moran, The New York Times

In some circles, those words alone have been enough for people to openly root for the shooter and hope that he escapes the grasp of law enforcement.

Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at the Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks online threats, said the internet rhetoric had left experts “pretty disturbed” by the glorification of the murder of Brian Thompson and the “lionisation of the shooter”.

In a report this week, the institute found that of the top 10 most-engaged posts on the social platform X about the shooting on Wednesday, 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 such as 4chan and 8chan, where perpetrators of extreme violence become memes themselves, Goldenberg said, “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,” Goldenberg said.

On Saturday afternoon, about a half-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” painted on his jacket.

The winner of a look-alike contest for the gunman which was held in lower Manhattan on December 7, 2024. Photo / Amir Hamja, The New York Times

The contest drew a crowd of about 30 people who had heard about the event through flyers that were 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 celebrated the actions of the gunman and that he believed it was important to make people understand how people were hurting under the healthcare system.

For executives of large corporations, particularly those in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, Thompson’s 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 160 kilometres away from Manhattan, in a Philadelphia alleyway next to a graffitied dumpster, the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” were spray-painted on the side of a building.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Hurubie Meko

Photographs by: Jeenah Moon, Karsten Moran and Amir Hamja

©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES