Murder in Manhattan!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There was a murder committed on Sixth Avenue in New York City early yesterday morning that, unlike many modern homicides which occur in America's largest metropolitan areas, will be solved.  The victim in this instance was a relatively young (50-year-old), very rich (and thus very powerful) white businessman - and as such neither the police nor the press will be able to look away until the horrible crime is solved and the shooter and any others involved are brought to justice.

And that is good because society definitely does not want people who lack qualms about killing others walking streets which are already mean enough.  

The shooting in which UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally gunned down from behind by a masked villain did not occur in some seedy, rat-and-drug-infested-back alley late at night as the bars were closing.  It happened in Manhattan, in front of the Midtown Hilton Hotel, in broad daylight. The killing was an affront to decent people everywhere, particularly those who were rushing along to get to work - or to school - or just to breakfast.

The police are calling it a "targeted" shooting, a premeditated act.

Senseless murders happen every day, often in crowded and bustling cities, but those killings usually happen to those people, in seedy settings, and with other crimes feeding into the immediate situation - hookers, and druggies, and gangbangers, and society's other refuse in the absolute worst places imaginable - not some obscenely rich white guy on a busy street in a better part of town - in front of a Hilton Hotel!

All of the major news sites carried the story and are still updating it, and it remained the lead story on my NPR station just a few minutes ago.

Police are fully engaged and releasing statements, and the governor, both US Senators, and the appropriate congressman from Minnesota, the state where the deceased lived, have all issued statements of condolence and outrage.  His widow has made multiple press statements, and his teen sons are presumably somewhere being "protected" from the press feeding-frenzy.

As stated above, this is a case that is very likely to be solved, and solved quickly, not because that is a routine outcome in urban murders, for it historically and clearly is not, but rather because of who the victim was and where the heinous crime occurred.  There are two standards of justice in this country, and there is no point in belaboring a point that we all understand.  But even so, none of us want killers walking the streets - so if one gets caught based on who and where he killed, that makes all of us just a bit safer regardless of the fact that others are still walking free also based on who and where they killed.

This morning the young man who shot Brian Thompson three times in the back and leg yesterday with a nine-millimeter weapon, is still at large.  There is a relatively clear photo of him from street cams that shows him to be young and white, although one national news source referred to him as "light-skinned."  He was wearing an olive-colored pullover garment with a hood, and a black mask across his nose and mouth.  He also is wearing a gray "distinctive-looking" backpack.  The young man had apparently been staking out the location from an alley and stepped forward as his target exited his vehicle in front of the hotel.  After shooting his victim, the assassin fled on foot and was last seen entering Central Park on one of the ubiquitous "e-bikes" that race around the city like rampaging termites and are the constant bane of New York residents and tourists.

Mr. Thompson was in New York for a meeting of UnitedHealthcare investors which was to be held at the Hilton later yesterday.  He had been the CEO of the insurance branch of UnitedHealthcare for four years and had an annual salary of $10.2 million including bonuses and stock options.  He was a resident of Maple Grove, Minnesota, and the company is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

It will be most interesting to see who is ultimately behind this crime, because who could possibly harbor a deadly grudge against a healthcare insurance executive?