CEOs' moment of reckoning after UnitedHealthcare backlash: 'We have to reflect on why there’s so much anger'

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down last week in a killing that shocked the corporate world. 

A suspect in the case, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, has been arrested and taken into custody. Shell casings from the bullets found at the crime scene were inscribed with the words “Defend,” “Deny,” and “Depose,” eerily similar to the name of a book about unscrupulous practices within the health care industry. When police arrested Mangione, they found a document on him that they say was critical of the insurance industry. Authorities added at a press conference earlier this week that “it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America.”

While most killings prompt an outpouring of condolences and support, the reaction in this case was very different. Some people expressed their sorrow, but Thompson’s killing soon prompted a social media backlash and a deluge of scornful messages about how the insurance industry in the U.S. has denied claims and care for ill and vulnerable people.

The reaction was so robust that today, Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about the killing. He shared remembrances of Thompson, and portrayed UnitedHealth Group as the player in a flawed system that he hoped would be fixed.  

“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it,” he wrote. He added, however, that his colleagues were “struggling to make sense” of the vitriol directed towards them, and that employees had been “barraged by threats.”

With a few exceptions like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, most CEOs and executives live lives of relative anonymity. And although some top executives demand huge security costs, the median value of security spending for this cohort was around $50,000, according to WTW, an insurance broker and risk management company. 

Thompson’s killing, however, might change that. Executive security firms over the past week have received a huge influx of questions, and the incident could transform how companies go about protecting top executives moving forward.  

As for the CEOs themselves, many aren’t resting as easy as they were just a few weeks ago. “When I was growing up, CEOs didn’t make millions more than everyone else in the company,” one chief executive told Fortune. “I think we have to reflect on why there’s so much anger and do something about it.”

You can read more about how CEOs are reacting to this moment here.

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-Azure Gilman, Fortune’s Deputy Leadership Editor