On Wednesday, social media greeted the shocking news about the evidently targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan with morbid mockery, blasting the U.S. insurance industry for profiting off the denial of life-saving medical treatments. Today, the New York Police Department released two more images of their primary suspect in the shooting — the first to show his entire face — and the internet collectively swooned.
A user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote in a post Thursday morning: “oh no lol this app is about to fall apart.” He had shared one of the latest surveillance images of a man the police are seeking, which showed him in a hoodie and jacket, flashing a smile. The image was captured at a hostel on the Upper West Side where the suspect had allegedly used a fake New Jersey ID to check in. Law enforcement confirmed to CNN that they had interviewed a female employee of the hostel who said she had asked him to lower his neck gaiter face mask while flirting with him. (Security video frames from a Starbucks, released by the NYPD on Wednesday, showed a suspect whose lower face was covered by such a mask.)
If the hostel employee was intrigued by this unidentified man, then so were many others who caught a better glimpse of him. Some drew comparisons to Hollywood leading men including Jake Gyllenhaal, whose name began trending on X (“Jake Gyllenhaal get ready to win an Oscar buddy,” wrote one user) and Timothée Chalamet (“This would be a wild ending to the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest saga,” quipped another, referring to a chaotic and un-permitted New York event that brought Chalamet doppelgängers together in late October.) More than a few were quite direct in their assessment of the suspect’s looks: “bro got assassinated by a cutie patootie,” read a viral X post, with another declaring, “it has now been revealed to the public that the gunman is hot and has a dazzling smile.”
Though the manhunt for the shooter continues and police have neither named a suspect nor charged anyone with Thompson’s homicide, this last remark demonstrates how some commentators have begun to associate that face with the crime — and approve of both. As an unabashed admirer put it on X, “are those pics actually the shooter. pls i hope so america needs a hot assassin.” Similarly, a TikTok user replied to a video appraising the suspect’s “cute” appearance: “he’s a planner, he takes initiative, he always makes sure the jobs done, he takes care of himself, should i continue?” A comment on the same thread with more than 5,000 likes read: “He’s FIIIIINE. And an American hero? Thank you for your service king.”
While it’s also impossible to confirm a motive for the slaying at this time, social media has run wild with the idea that it was revenge for UnitedHealthcare’s denial of medical coverage from a patient. This speculation has been fueled by comments from Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, who suggested to the press that he had been receiving threats along those lines — and reports that shell casings at the scene of the shooting were printed with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.” A popular theory holds that this was meant to echo the so-called “three Ds” of corporate insurance practice in managing claims: “delay, deny, defend.”
The surge of online support around the mystery gunman and the main person of interest in the investigation makes for a strange juxtaposition with the NYPD’s offer of a $10,000 reward for intel that leads to the arrest of the perpetrator. It’s not often you have people publicly offering an alleged murderer safe harbor in their own homes as authorities look to bring them in, creating fan art about his act of violence, and proclaiming him a folk hero. It’s a sign, if nothing else, of the anger at inequality and disadvantage that simmers in the American populace today — and sometimes boils over.
