Murder at dawn: A top executive’s final moments in Manhattan

Unbeknown to them, one of the company’s top executives had been killed earlier that morning on the street out front in what police say was a targeted attack.

Brian Thompson, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, had been steps from the Hilton’s entrance at 6:44 a.m. when an assassin wearing a dark hoodie and gray backpack stepped from behind a parked car in the predawn darkness, calmly pursued him for a few steps, and then shot him with a 9-millimeter pistol.

Thompson staggered, appeared to turn toward his pursuer, and then collapsed. The killer fled down an alley and then escaped on an ebike.

Inside the conference room of one the city’s busiest hotels, the show went on. It wasn’t until around 9 a.m. that Andrew Witty, chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, interrupted the proceedings to announce that the event was being canceled due to “a very serious medical situation with one of our team members."

“And as a result, I’m afraid we’re going to have to bring to a close the event today," he added. “I’m sure you’ll understand."

The news had already started to ripple through the crowd. Nearly everyone with a mobile phone and a social-media platform seemed to know what the medical emergency was. Within the hour, many of the attendees were in the Hilton lobby, luggage in tow, checking out.

Even for a city inured to shootings and macabre headlines, the killing of a top executive just before sunrise was stunning. It was all the more so because the shooting—which Jessica Tisch, the new New York Police Department commissioner, called “a brazen, targeted attack"—unfolded at the height of the holiday season in a Midtown Manhattan thronged with tourists admiring festive store windows, taking in the Rockettes show at Radio City Music Hall and the like.

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, just a few blocks from the Hilton, was due to be lighted on Wednesday night. By midmorning, a crowd had formed by the skating rink to watch a rehearsal for the television event. Meanwhile, a short walk away, others were gathered behind yellow tape and metal barricades, gawking at investigators as they picked over the crime scene.

Thompson, who one acquaintance described as having “a classic Midwestern executive vibe," was visiting from Minnesota for the company’s annual investor day conference, and had been staying at a hotel across the street since Monday.

In the healthcare industry, many were grappling with the loss of a friend and colleague. The previous evening, Thompson had been among the UnitedHealth executives who hosted a dinner for analysts and investors. “It struck people as surreal," said John Ransom, an analyst at Raymond James, noting the dissonance between a routine Wall Street event and the killing of a man many had known for years.

Health insurance was Thompson’s path from rural Iowa to executive success. Yet some speculated that the much-reviled industry might have provided a motive for the killer—although the police released no information on the matter. Companies such as UnitedHealthcare have been inundated with lawsuits and complaints from enraged customers who complain that they have been unfairly denied medical coverage.

“There had been some threats," Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News on Wednesday, adding: “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?"

Thompson, whose father worked in the local grain elevators, was considered a fast-riser at UnitedHealth. He had been appointed president of UnitedHealthcare in 2021 after leading its division that dealt with Medicare and Medicaid. He was married with two sons.

Speaking at his father’s funeral last year, he discussed their rural roots and reminisced about fishing with him and his older brother, Mark, at a favorite local spot.

Antonio Ciaccia, who met Thompson around 2018 while serving as head of government affairs at the Ohio Pharmacists Association, described him as “uniquely affable, thoughtful, and likable."

He maintained respect for Thompson even though they were on opposite sides of the table when a trio of UnitedHealthcare executives flew to Ohio to try to mend fences after the state accused the company of overcharging for drugs.

Matt Burns, a former UnitedHealthcare communications executive who worked with Thompson, recalled him as a whip-smart, down-to-earth leader.

“He was always known as this sort of outgoing, affable, relatable leader who you rooted for and you cheered for," Burns said, crediting Thompson as one those behind for the company’s launch of so-called health navigators, who would guide patients through difficult times with their treatment.

Thompson had been scheduled to speak at this week’s annual conference.

On Wednesday morning, one witness described the shots as sounding like a car door slamming. A hotel guest described hearing the sirens outside on Sixth Avenue.

By 9 a.m., when a man who works at the 24-hour newsstand directly in front of the Hilton on Sixth Avenue arrived for his shift, nothing appeared out of the ordinary, he said.

Hilton’s side door on 54th Street told a different story. Police tape, metal guardrails and orange cones blocked anyone from entering the building. Television-crew vans lined both sides of the street. A police officer mounted on a horse stood nearby, staring ahead at the hotel’s entrance.

“Brian was a wonderful man and a wonderful father," said Maria Reveiz, one of Thompson’s sisters-in-law who is a yoga teacher and owns a jazz club in Des Moines.

Reveiz, who said she is one of five sisters, had just arrived Wednesday in Egypt to help Gaza refugees when she got a text from another sister with an article about the shooting. They didn’t know at first if it was true, she said. Thompson’s wife, Paulette, also learned about the shooting from the other sister.

“We are shocked and heartbroken and we are disgusted that we had to find out from an article online," Reveiz said.

WSJ staff members contributed to this article.

Write to Joshua Chaffin at joshua.chaffin@wsj.com