Frustration sparks over US healthcare as netizens copy UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter’s look

Internet sleuths aren’t on the hunt for the person who assassinated the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Instead, they’re more interested in finding out where he got his jacket.

After the shooting and killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, internet sleuths naturally went online to try and understand who the unknown assailant was.

However, instead of helping to identify the masked man, internet sleuths supposedly found the jacket he was wearing at the time of the attack.

Redditors claim that the jacket he was wearing is a Levis model. It’s supposedly the ‘Men’s sherpa-lined two-pocket hooded trucker jacket’ sold at Macy’s for roughly $200.

Once netizens caught wind of this new information, the Levis jacket started gaining a lot of interest, as over 6,000 people were viewing the item on the Macy’s website.

TMZ reported that the jackets started to morbidly fly off the shelves, as roughly 700 jackets were sold in 48 hours.

While many were shocked by the attack on 50-year-old Thompson, who was shot and killed in Manhattan on December 4th, it’s been reported that many of the internet's best detectives won’t be getting involved in the manhunt.

This is due to the fact that many may agree with the killing of the high-level health insurance executive, as users went online to express their own opinions.

According to NBC News, tens of thousands of people went online to show their support for the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO across various different social media platforms. This is mainly due to the dissatisfaction with the US healthcare system.

Saw mainstream news coverage about the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare on TikTok and I think political and industry leaders might want to read the comments and think hard about them pic.twitter.com/RuBii9KFH4

undefined Tobita Chow (@tobitac) December 4, 2024

A video posted to the subreddit r/damnthatsinteresting showed various people attending a ‘UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter lookalike competition’ where people were dressed like the masked shooter.

One person can be seen with a sign that says “Deny, Defend, Depose.” These were the words found written on the shell casings at the scene. However, officials said that the words were actually “Deny, Delay, Depose.”

UnitedHealthcare hack

Earlier this year, UnitedHealthcare were victims of a ransomware attack that leaked the data of 100 million Americans.

UnitedHealthcare finally revealed the true scope of the February ransomware attack, which resulted in months of outages and disruption across the US health sector. The company reported that 100 million individuals were affected.

The number was revealed through the US Department of Health and Human Services website’s data breach portal, which lists “all breaches reported within the last 24 months that are currently under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights.”

No healthcare-related data breach in the US has ever been so widespread. However, UHG is likely the largest health sector business ever breached as it processes about half of all American medical claims, cooperates with 900,000 physicians, and operates 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals, and 600 laboratories.