By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Menacing “wanted” posters wheat pasted near the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan target other health industry executives in the wake of the slaying of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A poster affixed to a traffic control box at Canal and Centre Sts. shows a red X over the face of Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO shot dead in Midtown next week, a TikTok video that garnered over 2 million views in 24 hours shows.
The poster is flanked by two similar ones. One shows a picture of a UnitedHealth CEO while the other targets an Optum RX CEO.
“HEALTH CARE CEOS SHOULD NOT FEEL SAFE,” a menacing message at the bottom of the posters reads, followed by “DENY, DEFEND, DEPOSE,” a reference to tactics used by insurance companies to minimize coverage, according to critics. The words deny, defend and depose were found on spent ammunition used to kill Thompson.
Similar posters were put up on a construction shed at Broad and Wall Sts. in the Financial District within view of the stock exchange. Most of the posters had been scraped away by Wednesday, though remnants of them remained.
Viral posts online have listed the names and salaries of several health insurance executives police worry could be harassed and targeted.
The NYPD concludes in an internal analysis of the manifesto written by Luigi Mangione, Thompson’s alleged killer, that he sees the murder “as a symbolic takedown” given his criticism of the health care insurance industry, which he blasted for putting profits before people.
“Based on observed initial online reactions to the shooting, including celebrations of the killing of a health insurance executive,” the NYPD analysis reads, “there is a risk that a wide range of extremists may view Mangione as a martyr and an example to follow.”
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