Healthcare execs commonly face threats, says security expert — who wonders why UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was alone on NYC streets
Healthcare bigwigs like slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson regularly field serious threats that warrant security protection, according to an expert whose company has worked for Thompson before.
Questions are swirling over why Thompson wasn’t being guarded when he was gunned down execution-style in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday — with his wife admitting he had received threats over “lack of coverage.”
“I assure you, that company does have an internal security team and staff,” Philip Klein, private security veteran and head of Klein Investigations, told The Post Thursday.
“I know they do, they get a lot of threats from people who have been turned down, a lot of threats due to the cost of healthcare.”
Klein said Thompson’s lack of security in the Big Apple may have been because he refused it.
Thompson was shot several times by an unknown assailant Wednesday morning, who fled the scene on an electric CitiBike which it’s believed he rode north into Central Park on Center Drive.
New evidence has emerged suggesting the killer may have had an ax to grind with Thompson’s employer, cryptic words discovered written on the bullet casings pointing investigators to a 2010 book called “Delay, Deny, Defend,” which skewers the healthcare industry.
Klein said that it’s “absolutely” gotten more commonplace for high-level corporate executives to have armed security details, particularly those from industries which have put the squeeze on hard-working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, pushing people to their breaking point.
“When you get in peoples’ back pockets throughout the US, the other 90%, people get upset and angry.
“The cost of groceries made people angry at grocery companies. The cost of gas made people angry at the oil industry. Credit card companies, the health insurance industry — people are upset and angry, and small percent of them are going to come after these executives because they blame them,” he warned.
Klein, whose own company personally protected Thompson several times in the ’00s as he delivered speeches in Dallas, said there was an obvious multi-layer failure at play that led to the executive’s violent death.
“When you’re a corporate CEO, you’ve got two phones on you, you’re worried about the speech you’re about to give, who you’re going to meet, you’re probably having a working breakfast that morning, probably talking to corporate staff, you’re not worried about the world around you,” Klein told The Post.
He pointed to a number of ways the shooter was able to get close enough to the 50-year-old CEO to carry out what police believe was a targeted attack, starting with him being allowed to walk from his hotel across the street to the Hilton, where he was killed.
“Head of a multibillion-dollar corporation walking down the streets of New York City — are you crazy? Are you nuts? What the hell was that about?” he said of the “failure” to keep Thompson safe and questioned why it appeared he was going it alone.
“Was it him being arrogant? Was he trying to hide something? Did he just not like security around him? Did his wife not? That’s the question that needs to be answered by UHS. The next time a CEO comes in and says they don’t want security, you say well then you can’t be CEO of our company.”
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As for how Klein would have handled the protection differently?
“If I was his detail leader I’d never have allowed him to go out that front door and down the street. We would have gone through the back, through the conference rooms or entertainment rooms, or gone through the kitchen and had the motorcade set up out the back door and get him in the car,” he shared.
The security expert said he didn’t think the shooter — who was caught on video calmly racking his gun several times as he shot Thompson to death — was a professional because of the trail of evidence he left behind.
“If it was a corporate hit — seen in other countries — would never see this person’s face, would never see how they’re dressed,” he noted. “But now we’ve got pictures of his face. Now we’re gonna find out who he is.”
Klein said his biggest fear is that people will look at Wednesday’s early morning slaying as a fluke occurrence.
“I’m afraid someone will look at this and say ‘he was just a wacko, just a cuckoo,’ but how many of those are out there?”
