‘Gunman who killed healthcare boss left message on ammunition’

New York: The masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest US health insurance companies on a Manhattan sidewalk used ammunition emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The official was not authorised to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown, blocks from tourist draws like Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art. The words on the ammunition may have been a reference to strategies insurance companies use to try to avoid paying claims. The killing, and the shooter’s movements in the minutes before and afterward, was captured on some of the multitudes of security cameras present in that part of city.