- UnitedHealthcare’s CEO appeared not to have a bodyguard when he was shot Wednesday in Manhattan.
- Two security consultants told Business Insider that was unusual.
- Even if he’d had a bodyguard, it may not have saved his life, one said.
Two executive-protection consultants say they were surprised UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson didn’t appear to have a bodyguard when he was shot and killed walking into a hotel in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday — though one said it likely wouldn’t have saved his life.
A “person of interest,” 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested in connection with Thompson’s death in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
It’s not clear whether Thompson had a security detail, but in the video of the shooting shared by the New York City Police Department, he appears to be walking toward the hotel alone. A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brittney Blair, who specializes in consulting executives about their personal security for the risk-management firm K2 Integrity, said she was “floored, honestly,” that Thompson did not appear to have a bodyguard.
“I’ve seen a lot of CEOs and high-profile business leaders who sometimes feel that corporate security is maybe a little bit overboard,” she said. “They feel — I don’t want to say untouchable, but they maybe underestimate how much of a public figure they are.”
Thompson appeared to live somewhat modestly relative to the $10.2 million he received in compensation last year, in a combination of cash and stock grants, Securities and Exchange Commission records show. He resided in a Minneapolis suburb, in a home purchased for just over $1 million in 2018, tax records show.
His wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that her husband had received threats.
“There had been some threats,” she said. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Paulette Thompson couldn’t be reached for comment by BI.
Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent who now runs the private-security firm LaSorsa & Associates, said that an around-the-clock protective detail costs in the neighborhood of $100,000 a month. But, he said, even if Thompson had such a security detail, it might not have stopped a motivated shooter.
“I know it sounds extreme, but you’re not going to mitigate a killing if someone’s hell-bent on doing it to you. Sooner or later, they’re going to succeed,” LaSorsa said.
If Thompson had been walking with a bodyguard, LaSorsa added, “and they’d both had their backs turned, they both would have been shot.”
