UnitedHealthcare is increasing security after Brian Thompson's killing, executive says [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Fri 6 Dec 2024 16.50 EST
Last modified on Fri 6 Dec 2024 18.42 EST


The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty, told employees he would increase security, including “perimeter protection”, at the company’s sites following the killing of one of their colleagues, CEO of the company’s health insurance branch Brian Thompson.

In comments shared with the Guardian, Witty said the company would make “permanent” changes that would make campuses less “welcoming”, but they were necessary in the country’s current “climate”.

“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered, in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable,” Witty said, according to comments shared with the Guardian. “I have never been more proud of what this company and our colleagues do on behalf of the people in this country. I urge you to tune out the negative messaging you hear on social media,” Witty said.

Witty made the comments in the face of online vitriol in response to the killing of Thompson, a 50-year-old CEO of United HealthCare, who is survived by two sons and his wife, Paulette. Thompson was killed early Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan, just outside the site of the company’s annual investor meeting, by an unknown assailant who shot the executive at least twice and then fled on an ebike.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/06/united-healthcare-shooting-increased-security