The leader of UnitedHealth Group conceded that the patchwork U.S. health system “does not work as well as it should” but said Friday that the insurance executive gunned down on a Manhattan sidewalk cared about customers and was working to make it better.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed last week, was described as kind and brilliant by UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty in a guest essay published in The New York Times.

The killing has been viewed as a violent expression of widespread anger at the insurance industry. Witty said people in the company were struggling to make sense of the killing, as well as the vitriol and threats directed at colleagues.

Police have said that the man charged with killing Thompson, Luigi Mangione, was found with a three-page letter in which he lamented the high cost of health care in the U.S. and singled out UnitedHealthcare for its profits and size. The company, a division of UnitedHealth Group, is the largest U.S. health insurer. Mangione is currently being held in Pennsylvania and intends to plead not guilty to a murder charge in New York, his lawyer has said.

Witty said he understood people’s frustration but described Thompson as part of the solution.

Thompson never forgot growing up in his family’s farmhouse in Iowa and focused on improving the experiences of consumers.

“His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. B.T., as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother. He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care,” Witty wrote.

Witty said his company shares some responsibility for lack of understanding of coverage decisions.

“We know the health system does not…

ALTOONA, Pa. — The gun found on the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday.

Suspect Luigi Mangione’s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and a snack bar wrapper that police found near the scene in midtown Manhattan, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at an unrelated news conference. Police had said earlier that they believed the gunman bought the items at a nearby coffee shop while awaiting his target.

Mangione, 26, was charged with murder in last week’s shooting of Brian Thompson, who led the United States’ largest medical insurance company.

Authorities have said that writings found in Mangione’s possession hinted at a hatred of corporate greed.

They’ve recovered a spiral notebook that Mangione kept, along with a three-page, handwritten letter found when he was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. Police have not disclosed what was in the notebook.

The letter teased the possibility that clues to the attack — “some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it” — could be found in the notebook, the law enforcement official said. The official wasn’t authorized to disclose information about the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The New York Police Department’s top detective, Joseph Kenny, told CBS New York on Tuesday that the motive might have been related to an accident that sent Mangione to an emergency room on July 4, 2023.

A law enforcement bulletin obtained by the AP earlier this week said the letter disdained corporate greed and what Mangione called “parasitic” health insurance companies. The prep school and Ivy League graduate wrote that…

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed Wednesday morning in what police said was a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding an investor conference.

The 50-year-old executive was shot around 6:45 a.m. as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel, police said. The gunman appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Police had not yet established a motive.

“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” Tisch said, adding that the shooting “does not appear to be a random act of violence.”

Thompson was struck at least once in the back and once in the calf, Tisch said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and carrying a distinct gray backpack, then fled on foot down an alleyway before pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a few blocks away. The shooter was at large, sparking a search that included police drones, helicopters and dogs.

“We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare,” the insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement.

“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the company said. “We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.”

Police…

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Police had a suspect in custody Wednesday after he fired a volley of shots in Downtown Brooklyn just after noon, outside Kings County Criminal and Family courts at Jay Street and Tech Place.

A police spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle that NYPD received a 911 call of shots fired outside 320 Jay St. around 12:18 p.m., in front of the court house and across the street from the NYC College of Technology (to the north) and NYU Tandon (to the east). An Urban Assembly School is one block away.

The CUNY automatic alert system sent out a robocall warning of shots fired to students at roughly 12:45 p.m., asking them to avoid the area.

Courthouse personnel told an Eagle source that 5 to 6 shots had been fired. Police blocked the intersection off with yellow caution tape as the investigation continued on Wednesday.

The name of the suspect, identified by police only as a male, has not yet been released. This story will be updated as details become available.

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4 wounded at Brooklyn train station when officers shoot man wielding knife

September 16 |
Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press

Two ex-fire chiefs in New York City arrested in corruption scandal

September 16 |
Jake Offenhartz and Larry Neumeister

NYPD expands role in civilian agencies as feds circle top cops

September 13 |
Katie Honan, Reuven Blau, and Yoav Gonen, THE CITY

Police arrest ‘Park Slope Prowler,’ accused of groping numerous women

September 6 |
Mary Frost

Four people were wounded at a Brooklyn subway station Sunday when police officers shot a man threatening them with a knife, and inadvertently sprayed bullets that hit passengers, authorities said.

The people struck by gunfire included two innocent bystanders, one of the officers and the man with the blade, who the police initially confronted because he hadn’t paid his fare, officials said.

One of the passengers, a 49-year-old man, was hospitalized in critical condition after a bullet passed into an adjoining subway car and struck his head.

A video posted by a passenger showed upset passengers fleeing, police running to help the injured and the wounded officer suddenly realizing he had also been struck by a bullet.

Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlan, who was only appointed to his position Friday, promised a thorough investigation, but cast blame for the incident on the man accused of brandishing the knife.

“We will be working through the timeline of today, but make no mistake, the events that occurred on the Sutter Avenue station platform are the results of an armed perpetrator who was confronted by our officers doing the job we asked them to do,” Donlon said.

The shooting happened a little after 3 p.m. when two officers followed a man up the station steps to an elevated platform after seeing him enter without paying, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.

The officers told the man to stop, but he refused, muttering “I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me,” Maddrey said. In the course of the encounter, the officers noticed the man had a knife, Maddrey said.

They followed him onto a train that had pulled into the station and fired two Tasers, but neither incapacitated the man, Maddrey said.

Maddrey said the man was advancing on the officers with the knife when both officers fired multiple rounds.

The 37-year-old man was hit several times. He was hospitalized in stable condition. The…

Two former New York City Fire Department chiefs were in custody Monday on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes before ensuring the department’s fire-safety division gave preferential treatment to some individuals and companies.

Anthony Saccavino and Brian Cordasco were arrested on bribery, corruption and false statements charges alleging that they solicited and accepted the bribe payments from at least 2021 through 2023, authorities said.

The arrests came as multiple ongoing federal investigations swirl around Mayor Eric Adams and his top deputies, including one inquiry that appears at least partly focused on whether the administration sped up fire safety inspections at the Turkish consulate in exchange for illegal contributions.

Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to say whether the case against the former fire chiefs was related to “any other investigation we may or may not be doing.” But he put people on notice that his office is continuing to pursue any corruption.

“We are determined to address it from root to branch, and our work is far from done,” he said at a news conference, adding: “If you are aware of and participated in corrupt activity in our government, now is the time to come forward to get on the right side of the law.”

The indictment against Cordasco and Saccavino said they were former chiefs for the city Fire Department’s Bureau of Fire Prevention. The bureau is responsible for regulating the installation of fire safety and suppression systems throughout New York City and ensuring fire safety…

 

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City Hall is moving to embed NYPD members into other city agencies, even as the police commissioner and other top officials in the administration of Mayor Eric Adams are under scrutiny by federal law enforcement.

As of Sept. 3, NYPD Deputy Inspector Timothy Wilson has been assigned as “Chief of Enforcement” at the city Department of Parks and Recreation, managing 250 Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, according to an internal memo obtained by THE CITY — part of a larger initiative to place NYPD officials into local government agencies.

Wilson’s duties include “addressing illegal vending on parkland, permit enforcement, recruitment with the hopes of lowering attrition, building out the agency’s drone unit, and enhancing collaboration with NYPD to support PEP officers,” reads an Aug. 29 report from Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue to her supervisor, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi.

The memo describes the new NYPD chief enforcement officer at the Parks Department as “part of a mayoral initiative to embed an NYPD member in each agency with an enforcement unit to enhance interagency coordination and streamline enforcement efforts.”

More than a dozen city agencies have enforcement units, including the departments of Homeless Services, Environmental Protection, and Health and Mental Hygiene — all of which will be directed to train employees at the Police Academy facility in Queens under another Adams initiative announced in May.

A spokesperson for Adams didn’t respond to questions about which agencies are being assigned NYPD enforcement chiefs and referred questions about the initiative…

BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK — More bone fragments, presumably human, were found along the shore in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday, Aug. 31 — the third time in the past two weeks that bones were found along the rocks near Jane’s Carousel. 

Police said they received a 911 call around 7 p.m. that “possible human remains” had been found on the shoreline in the vicinity of 10 Dock Street. 

Bystanders posted numerous videos on the Citizen app showing a heavy police presence in the park Saturday evening, with yellow caution tape blocking off an area adjacent to the carousel and officers clambering on the rocks next to the pier. One officer can be seen putting something into a red biohazard bag as a large crowd watched from behind the caution tape.

According to PIX11, the bones discovered Saturday were first spotted by a woman who was intentionally looking for them after hearing about the two previous discoveries. The outlet reported that the bones resembled a fragment of a rib cage.

A femur and a couple of smaller bones were found just after midnight Wednesday, Aug. 18, also near the carousel. And on the morning of Monday, Aug. 16, police found a skull and bones in the same area, the Eagle reported. 

These two batches of bones appeared to be part of the same body, ABC7news said, though this has not been officially confirmed.

The East River’s strong currents change direction between flood and ebb tides about four times each day, according to the U.S. Energy Department. This current, along with wash from passing vessels, constantly…

PARK SLOPE — Another report of a woman being sexually groped in Park Slope near Prospect Park came to light Sunday — and police have released a photo of the suspect in the incident. 

Police said a 39-year-old woman was walking near the intersection of Eighth Street and Eighth Avenue on Aug. 9 at 11:45 p.m. when an unidentified man approached her from behind and touched her buttocks. The male then fled the scene to parts unknown. In the photo, the man appears to have a light complexion with dark hair, wearing a blue t-shirt and dark pants.

It was the fourth report released by police in a series of similar incidents, which residents fear are becoming more aggressive. Other reported molestations took place shortly afterwards on Aug. 10, 13 and 14.

All the reported episodes took place near Prospect Park West, police said. 

At least one description of a suspect varies from the others, so the same man may not be responsible for all the attacks.

Previous reports

On Aug. 10 at about 11:45 p.m., a 39-year-old woman was in front of 495 Eighth St., about a block from the park, when an unknown man grabbed her buttocks and then fled westbound on Eighth Street. He is described as a male with a dark complexion, last seen wearing a black t-shirt.

On Aug. 13 at roughly 10:06 p.m., a 32-year-old woman was opposite 608 Fifth St., just across the street from the park, when a man forcibly touched her buttocks, police said. He fled westbound on Fifth Street. He is described as a male, approximately 5’ 10”, 160 lbs. with a light complexion, and was last seen wearing a black t-shirt and black pants.

On Wednesday, Aug. 14, just before 1 a.m., a 34-year-old woman was walking her dog in the vicinity of Prospect Park West and First Street when an unknown man came…