Assassination of United Healthcare CEO

[Thermal]

I'll be very interested to see how police tied him to specifically a Greyhound bus from Atlanta last week, and tied him to it so quickly. Spitballing: facial recognition software that they pulled from flirting with cutie pie at the hostel, matching a hit on Greyhounds week old surveillance footage?

ETA: or maybe he used the same fake id he used at the hostel to buy the bus tickets, and Greyhound had that name in their recent rider logs?

 

[dudalb]

CNN is commenting on the murder. Their guest uses words like "confident", murder for hire", "high degree of training" and "advanced piece of equipment". I was like "WTF?".

I am merely proficient with a handgun, but I can tell that this guy appeared to be unable to select a proper weapon for the job. It malfunctioned at least twice. It shows him shoot Thompson once, who then falls. The shooter then fumbles with the pistol slide several times to get off one or two more shots.

Not sure why this guy thought using a silencer to murder someone in public was a good idea. A suppressed 9mm handguns is still rather loud when suppressed and it appears that the silencer may have been the cause of the malfunctions he experienced. Without a proper recoil booster and a lighter slide spring (sometimes required) malfunctions are more common when shooting suppressed.

There is video of the murder here;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864399853779886510

The victim is blurred out, but it is still graphic.

This, A pro would use a gun that was not prone to jamming.

 

[Thermal]

Yeah, it would be pretty hard to swallow for some kind of contract killer or whatever to let themselves get distracted by a pretty girl. Still apparently not as much of a clown with a firearm as we first thought though.

Agreed. I think he generally had a good idea what he was doing. He did a good job of keeping his mug out of sight, except when flashing his dimples at the hostel. The other pics show him masked and pretty anonymous. The cel phone was a burner, but he still should not have tossed it, near the crime (DNA and fingerprints), and should have been nowhere near a Starbucks, which as a nationwide higher end chain, has freaking cameras rolling. You can score cheap snacks from a street cart or dirty deli where he would have not been caught on film.

 

[Thermal]

This, A pro would use a gun that was not prone to jamming.

It wasn't jamming. Miatasport99 tracked down the gun model; it's a bolt action pistol. Operating the bolt looked like jamming and clearing.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Has anyone noticed that the handgun police believe was used is not an semi-auto, but a bolt action? Apparently a copy from WWII for covert missions (STATION SIX 9). I had been convinced it was misfiring as I saw a full cartridge on the ground during a news broadcast. Maybe that was left behind by hand if it was one of the ones with words printed on them. It sounds to me like it's inherently suppressed, even though the ABC news article that turned me onto it said no silencer, just a long barrel that renders it almost silent. From my understanding not even any kind of silencer can do that. Manufacturer showing a price of over $2000, and out of stock. This changes my perception of this being amateur hour.

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect allegedly flashed smile while flirting with hostel worker

Police appear to be closing in on an identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan.

abcnews.go.com

STATION SIX 9 | B&T USA

The B&T Station SIX-9 is a modern 9mm covert pistol, blending classic design with advanced engineering for discreet and reliable performance.

bt-usa.com

It was an automatic police do not think it was a bolt action.
Anyone who says it was knows nothing about either the VP9 or the Welrod.

Just to add, both of those are almost completely silent, especially the Welrod and Sten carbines developed from it.

 

[Andy_Ross]

It wasn't jamming. Miatasport99 tracked down the gun model; it's a bolt action pistol. Operating the bolt looked like jamming and clearing.

No it isn't it's an automatic.

 

[Darat]

The discussion is all about the type of gun, as if that is at all important. Only in the USA!

 

[Andy_Ross]

not much else to discuss yet

 

[gnome]

So if you don't mind me asking : we hear over here that you pay nearly 40% of your gross income in taxes that fund this. Is that +/- correct? If so, you're paying a lot more for your medical care than we are, although it's certainly a bonus that the poor don't have to jump through hoops.

The disconnect here is that 40% or whatever it actually is, pays for more than just the cost of health services. So that's not a valid comparison.

 

[rdwight]

Hate to be the one to defend insurance companies but their margins are not really large at all. People seem to think healthcare is an unlimited resource. It's childish.

Hear a lot of celebration from individuals that are also anti death penalty which is cute. General social media, not specifically here. Hard to take seriously the same people that fight so murderers aren't executed but cheer when it's a CEO.

On a related note, I don't see how single payer will work here. People happy about anthems reversal on anesthesiologist payment falling in line with what Medicare pays, our closest resemblance of single payer. People want CEOs to fear for their lives but tell them an anesthesiologist, who makes 4x in the usa what they make in the uk, that they will have to rein in excess charges and they go to war for them.

 

[dirtywick]

yeah health insurance companies are really struggling. the ceo of united only got $50m in compensation last year. tough business.

 

[rdwight]

yeah health insurance companies are really struggling. the ceo of united only got $50m in compensation last year. tough business.

Or you could address their actual profit margins. Should they take a loss? Which businesses are allowed to make profit and how much? If they shouldn't be making exorbitant amounts of money because its healthcare why don't people feel the same about doctors?

 

[Donal]

I guess the real question is how long will it take Fox News to blame it on immigrants?

Not even a full day later.

 

[dirtywick]

Or you could address their actual profit margins. Should they take a loss? Which businesses are allowed to make profit and how much? If they shouldn't be making exorbitant amounts of money because its healthcare why don't people feel the same about doctors?

lol what do you mean take a loss. they're making billions of dollars. with a b. they could cut their margins in half and still be making billions of dollars. with a b.

doctors aren't making $50m a year in compensation.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Hate to be the one to defend insurance companies but their margins are not really large at all. People seem to think healthcare is an unlimited resource. It's childish.

we are concerned about profits, buyback, massive CEO compensation and at the same time very low payout rates and terrible customer service.
if you believe AT ALL in markets, providing a bad overpriced product should not make your company and top managers rich.

 

[dirtywick]

margins don't mean anything at that scale. 2.4% on an independently owned sandwich shop is homelessness. in national health insurance it's rich beyond your wildest dreams generational wealth. lol come on man

edit

and do we even want to get into the accounting shell games every single one of these giant companies in every indusry uses to hide their real profits. it's absurd to me to even hear this

 

[Donal]

Ah Jesus, what is it with bad guys nowadays and these goddamned cel phones? You don't need to check ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ twitter or make phone calls during an execution. Just leave the things at home, turned on.

It was plainly a burner if he discarded it. And, he may have needed the Citi app to use a Citibike. Or maybe communicate with whoever hired him. Or maybe he called the victim as he walked out to confirm he had the right guy. There's any number of uses for a smartphone that don't involve social media.

It makes a GPS or ping alibi.

So, you leave your personal phone at home and buy a burner

And snack up before you head out. What do these guys do, take a fanny pack of accessories with them? A ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ coloring book? My kingdom for some proper villains.

Maybe he wasn't sure how long he'd have to wait. Maybe chewing on a snack and drinking some water helps him blend in a little more.

 

[Donal]

Or you could address their actual profit margins. Should they take a loss? Which businesses are allowed to make profit and how much? If they shouldn't be making exorbitant amounts of money because its healthcare why don't people feel the same about doctors?

doctors provide an actual service.

All you're doing is explaining why there shouldn't be health insurance companies.

 

[dirtywick]

well for all the criticism he's getting he hasn't been caught yet

 

[shemp]

Maybe things like this wouldn't happen if they didn't do ◊◊◊◊ like this:

Murdered Insurance CEO Had Deployed an AI to Automatically Deny Benefits for Sick People

Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.

Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors.

The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.

As The American Prospect so aptly put it, "only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO."