UnitedHealthcare CEO’s assassin left message to ‘make a statement’ or ‘take out the police’: detectives

Messages engraved on bullet casings from the suspect UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson killed on Wednesday were “left behind to make a statement,” an NYPD detective told Fox News Digital.

Police sources told the New York Post that the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend” were written on the live cartridges and shell casings left behind by the assassin after the shooting. There was only one word on every bullet and shell casing.

“Apparently intentionally left to make a statement,” the detective said Thursday. “This will help identify a motive and ultimately the suspect.”

The words could be from “Delay. Deny. Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It,” a book published in 2010 by Jay Feinman. Fox News Digital was unable to reach Feinman or the book’s publisher, Delden Press, for comment as of press time.

ASSASSIN, UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO, Believed he left message about bullet casings at crime scene: report

This undated UnitedHealth Group photo shows Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group)

Thompson’s wife, Pauline, said her husband had received death threats.

“There were some threats,” Thompson’s wife told NBC News. “Basically I don’t know, a lack of (health) insurance? I don’t know any details. All I know is that he said there were some people who did that.” had threatened him.

Alternatively, former Washington, D.C. homicide detective Ted Williams told Fox News Digital, the message could have been left behind to “deter investigators.”

In a shocking video obtained by Fox News Digital, Thompson can be seen walking down a street New York City When a masked man wearing a black hooded jacket and a backpack comes up behind him and raises a pistol.

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A surveillance image released by the NYPD shows the suspect in the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (NYPD Crimestoppers)

The The perpetrator fired several shots. At some point the gun appeared to jam. The attacker then appeared to strike the side of the weapon as he walked toward the victim, who tried to escape.

The NYPD detective, who did not want to be named, also noted that “the silencer (used by the assassin) appears to have been made specifically for this incident, which explains the jamming… and rechambering of the failed rounds.”

After the shooting, the suspect walked between two vehicles, got on a bicycle and then disappeared into Central Park NYPD said.

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Scene near the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, NY, where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

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Investigators hope the accompanying evidence left behind will help identify him, including, but not limited to: Cell phone discovered in an alley near the hotel where the shooting occurred, as well as a cup in a trash can at a nearby Starbucks.

“They look at everything and everyone and piece together the timelines and evidence piece by piece and very methodically,” the investigator said. “Hopefully he left some DNA behind.”

Christina Shaw of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.