Police are looking into “wanted” posters criticizing high-level corporate executives that started appearing around New York City in recent days, part of a suspected growing wave of animosity following the high-profile murder of insurance firm UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson.
(Colin Mixson/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
A spokesperson with the New York Police Department’s public information office told Forbes the NYPD are “aware of the posters and are investigating these incidents,” but no further details on where these posters or who is making them have been made publicly available.
Some of the posters reportedly showed images of executives with “WANTED” in red letters, followed by criticism of the healthcare industry: One poster features an image of Thompson with a red X drawn over his face, Bloomberg reported, while a clip from CNN shows the posters plastered against a New York City wall and a photo from Fox News shows a poster seemingly at a bus stop.
Social media posts—which circulated virally in recent days—depict the posters in question, featuring pages with red and black text like, “Fight back!” or “wanted for denying medical care for corporate profit,” the names, titles and photos of executives and what appear to be images of three bullets.
Some of the posters also repeatedly reference words—“deny,” “defend” and “depose”—that were written on bullet casings from the murder scene of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, who was shot fatally in Manhattan on Dec. 4; the three words are a version of a phrase used by health insurance critics to explain how firms might decide not to grant health claims.
The NYPD mentioned the posters and similar social media posts in a confidential bulletin on Tuesday warning about a heightened risk to healthcare executives, ABC News first reported.
The NYPD bulletin reportedly explains police are concerned the suspect in the murder, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, could be viewed as a “martyr” or inspiring copycats because of the flood of social media posts where individuals “reacted positively to the killing” and “encouraged future targeting of similar executives.”
Police officials have said no other individuals were mentioned in a manifesto reportedly found on Mangione justifying his alleged actions.
Threats to healthcare leaders were growing even before the murder of Thompson, Matthew Dumpert, a managing director at security advisory firm Kroll, told Forbes. The health insurance industry’s close relationship with tragedy and suffering makes it a prime target for anger, and the industry has faced elevated threats from social media and email for years, Dumpert told Forbes. Thompson’s wife reportedly said he had been sent threats before his death. “Both prior to and after the suspected perpetrator's identification and arrest, some online users across social media platforms reacted positively to the killing, encouraged future targeting of similar executives, and shared conspiracy theories regarding the shooting," NYPD’s bulletin said, according to ABC News.
Throughout the days following the murder and the corresponding manhunt, Thompson’s death has become a polarizing topic, with some online defending the violent crime or explaining discontent toward the health insurance industry more broadly. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, told the Huffington Post that she condemns violence but understands the reaction and called it “a warning to everyone in the healthcare system.” Police have not specified an alleged motive for Mangione—whose lawyer says he will likely plead not guilty—but authorities say they found a manifesto criticizing the insurance industry along with a notebook justifying the shooting.