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On Wednesday morning, an unidentified gunman shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a hotel in Manhattan.
While police are still searching for any clues regarding the identity of the killer and his motives, strange new details are already coming to light.
Perhaps most strikingly, the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were written on shell casings recovered at the crime scene, as law enforcement officials confirmed with CBS News today — a new wrinkle in what cops are calling a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.”
The exact meaning of the words is still hazy, but online observers quickly pointed out that Rutgers University law scholar Jay Feinman had published a book in 2010 that was sharply critical of the health insurance industry, titled “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.”
Whether the markings on the bullet casings were a direct reference to that book is unclear — after all, one word is different — but the three words do all sound like references to legal maneuverings that insurers use to avoid covering patients’ illnesses, building momentum behind the theory that the killing was a deliberate and ideological execution.
Security footage shows the gunman walking up to the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, shooting Thompson several times.
Law enforcement only recovered three shell casings total at the scene.
So far, the exact motive remains unknown. However, Thompson was the CEO of one of the largest health insurance companies in the world, which has made plenty of enemies over the years — to say the least.
The corporation, which is set to bring in $280 billion in revenue, has been caught up in a litany of controversies, from antitrust investigations to being accused of using an algorithm to deny rehabilitation care to seriously ill patients earlier this year.
“Yes, there had been some threats basically I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details,” Thompson’s wife told NBC News. “I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
More on the incident: People’s Reactions to a Health Insurance CEO Getting Assassinated Are Incredibly Dark
