Security expert shocked UnitedHealthcare CEO didn't have private detail: 'This is completely unusual'
As New York investigators continue their work to locate the alleged suspect behind the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a former private detail leader for Thompson is raising red flags around a "completely unusual" security aspect.
"What stands out most to me is the inability to provide him security in New York City while he's going to give a speech to many mad stockholders and possibly mad clients of the health care company," Klein Investigations CEO Philip Klein said Friday on "Fox & Friends First."
"Did he deny security and say, ‘Look, I don't want security around me?’ Because he does run one of, if not, the biggest health care industry in the world," the security expert posited. "Or secondarily, does the health care company not provide him security?"
The New York City Police Department is asking for the public's help in apprehending the unidentified gunman who allegedly shot and killed Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning, decrying what investigators deemed a "premeditated, pre-planned attack."
WHO WAS BRIAN THOMPSON, UNITEDHEALTHCARE C.E.O.?
The Hilton Hotel was hosting the UnitedHealthcare annual investors meeting, and police said Thompson had been in town from Minnesota since Monday and was staying across the street.
When evaluating potential motives, there were reports that the executives were accused of insider trading and fraud, and last year the Department of Justice launched a probe into whether the nation’s largest insurer was unfairly restricting competitors and running a monopoly. It is not clear if Thompson was part of that investigation before his murder.
"I don't know of one Top 20 company that does not have private security or personal security inside their house. What I mean by house is, inside their company that does not have agents that either escort their principal or their CEO from point A to point B, or travel with him or go wherever they go," Klein explained. "This is completely unusual."
Thompson’s wife told police and the media that her husband was receiving threats in the weeks leading up to the fatal shooting. Klein claimed that’s not uncommon in today’s tech and political climates.
"My phone rang off the wall yesterday with people in the food service industry. Their CEOs are getting death threats for, 'My eggs cost too much. My milk costs too much,’" he said.
"These guys are getting threats every day now, every day of the week," Klein added. "And so they're getting personal security."
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At one time providing personal protection for Thompson, Klein remembered the first time he and his team met the slain CEO at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
"I can tell you, there's not one member of our team that didn't look at each other after it was over and say, 'That guy's going somewhere.' He was nice to us, shook our hands, told us to be careful of all things. And he was just a great guy."
FOX Business’ Danielle Wallace, Alexis McAdams and Eric Revell contributed to this report.