On December 4, 2024, Brian Robert Thompson, the CEO of the American health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, New York City, where Thompson was heading to attend an investors' meeting.
The perpetrator, initially described as a white man wearing a mask, fled the scene. The words "delay", "deny", and "depose" were inscribed on the cartridge cases used during the shooting. On December 9, 2024, authorities arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and charged him in a Manhattan court with Thompson's killing. Authorities alleged that when Mangione was apprehended, he was carrying a 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed suppressor consistent with those used in the attack; a short handwritten letter criticizing the American healthcare system; an American passport; and multiple fraudulent IDs, including one with the same name used to check into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Mangione has been indicted on eleven state charges and four federal charges; the charges include first-degree murder, murder in furtherance of terrorism, criminal possession of a weapon, and stalking. His terrorism-related murder charges in the New York state's case were dismissed in September 2025. A judge dismissed two federal charges in January 2026, ruling that prosecutors could not seek the death penalty against Mangione. On August 14, 2026, Mangione pleaded guilty to the federal stalking charges and admitted to shooting Thompson, stating that he was motivated to shoot the CEO "after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back, navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system and witnessing similar experiences of countless others".
Thompson's death received widespread attention in the United States and led to polarized reactions. Several public officials expressed dismay and offered condolences to Thompson's family, while many used the event to call attention to the practices of the US health insurance industry. Opinion polls have shown that a majority of American adult respondents find the killing unacceptable, but with a plurality of younger respondents viewing the killing as acceptable, and a majority of Americans believing that denials of health care coverage and profits made by health insurance companies contributed to the UnitedHealthcare CEO's death. On social media, reactions to the killing included widespread contempt and mockery toward Thompson and UnitedHealth Group, sympathy and praise for Mangione, and broader criticism of the American healthcare system and health insurance industry—primarily regarding claim denial practices.
Brian Robert Thompson (July 10, 1974 – December 4, 2024) was the chief executive officer (CEO) of UnitedHealthcare, the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, from April 2021 until his death. He had worked for UnitedHealthcare since 2004. UnitedHealthcare insures 49 million Americans and generated $281 billion in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year. Under his leadership, UHC's profits increased from $12 billion in 2021 to $16 billion in 2023, and his total annual compensation was $10.2 million. At the time of Thompson's death, the company was the largest health insurer in the United States.
UnitedHealthcare had repeatedly faced criticism for its approach to handling claims. It and other insurers were named in an October 2024 report from the United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showing a surge in prior authorization denials for Medicare Advantage patients. Reports of increasing rates of prior authorization denials prompted investigations by ProPublica and the United States Senate, investigations which were described as a "stain" on Thompson's time of leadership by Fortune. According to Thompson's widow, he had been receiving threats related to a "lack of [insurance] coverage". In May 2024, a lawsuit was filed against Thompson along with Stephen Hemsley and two other senior executives for alleged fraud and insider trading due to failing to disclose an antitrust investigation into the company by the United States Department of Justice and by selling stock options before the probe was made public.
The suspect arrived in New York City on November 24, 2024, on a Greyhound bus. The bus route began in Atlanta, Georgia, but authorities do not know from which city or town he boarded. The day of his arrival, he checked into the HI New York City Hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with a falsified New Jersey identification card; he paid for his stay in cash. He stayed at the hostel for all but one night of the 10 days he was in New York City, checking out on December 3.
After his guilty plea, Mangione revealed that he had contacted UnitedHealthcare to gain access to details of the event Thompson was heading to by posing as an investor from a multibillion dollar firm.
Thompson was in New York City for an annual UnitedHealth Group investors' meeting, having arrived from Minneapolis on December 2, 2024. On December 4, at around 6:45 a.m. EST (UTC−5), Thompson was walking along West 54th Street toward the New York Hilton Midtown hotel that was hosting the meeting. Mangione waited across the street from the hotel for several minutes, then crossed over when he saw Thompson. Standing approximately 20 feet (6 m) away from Thompson when he arrived at the entrance, Mangione fired three times at him from a suppressed 9 mm pistol, striking him in the back and right calf. Three spent bullet casings were found at the scene, along with three ejected live rounds.
In the closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) recording of the killing, Mangione manually cycles the gun action after each shot, leading observers to believe that his weapon was a malfunctioning semi-automatic pistol. The authorities believe it to be the weapon they found in Mangione's bag after his arrest—a partially 3D-printed Glock 19 and 3D-printed suppressor. The ghost gun consists of a 3D-printed lower receiver, metal slide, unserialized Glock 19 internals from a parts kit, including a threaded barrel, and uses a standard Glock magazine. The 3D-printed part's design was an iteration of "FMDA 19.2", a design released in 2021 by the libertarian group Deterrence Dispensed.
Mangione fled the scene on an e-bike to Central Park; there, near the Carousel, he shed a backpack containing Monopoly money, candy, and a jacket before exiting the west end of the park at 77th Street. According to the police, he then left the city from the George Washington Bridge Bus Station farther uptown in Upper Manhattan. Thompson was taken to Mount Sinai West hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m. According to a later autopsy report, Thompson died from a gunshot wound to the back of the torso.
November 24, 10:11 p.m. – Mangione arrives at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on a Greyhound bus which originated in Atlanta, Georgia, and makes up to seven stops en route.
November 24 – Mangione checks into the HI New York City Hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. His unmasked face was caught on CCTV during the check-in process. Mangione had two hostel roommates who said he would slip down his mask only when eating.
November 24 – Mangione cases the New York Hilton Midtown hotel.
November 29 – Mangione checks out of the HI New York City Hostel.
November 30 – Mangione checks back into the HI New York City Hostel.
5:34 a.m. – Mangione leaves the hostel, and rides an e-bike to Midtown.
6:15 a.m. – Mangione is seen leaving the 57th Street F Train subway stop.