The former bodyguard of the late Brian Thompson said he is baffled by the lack of security for the former UnitedHealthcare CEO after the murder in New York City on Wednesday.
Speaking on CNN's "Laura Coates Live" on Thursday, Philip Klein said, "It was baffling, to be honest with you. You know, you get at somebody in the No. 1 healthcare organization in the United States of America, who is a corporate executive, a high-ranking one, as a matter of fact, just sitting on the board of directors, and he has no protection around him — that is just baffling."
"I don't understand it. We still don't understand it," he added.
Thompson was shot and killed just before 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday outside of the New York Hilton Midtown. New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said he was shot once in the right calf and in the back. He was declared dead 30 minutes later in what authorities say was a "brazen, targeted" and "premeditated" assassination.
As the manhunt for the unidentified man reaches its third day, authorities now believe he fled Manhattan by taking a taxi to the Port Authority facility at 178th Street and then boarded a bus out of New York City.
Klein, who is the CEO of Klein Investigations told Coates that there could be several reasons why Thompson did not have a security detail around him. "One, it could have been a personal choice. He may have not liked living in the bubble," he said, adding that UnitedHealthcare may have simply chosen not to provide Thompson with security.
Klein said that he couldn't guess why Thompson was not better protected and that all the circumstances leading up to the shooting were "highly unusual," noting that the shooter was aware when Thompson would be most vulnerable. "I believe that this man had his schedule. I think this man knew his movements. I think he posted up what, five, 10 minutes before he walked out of that other hotel and walked around the corner and was in front of the Hilton."
"It is highly unusual for the CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation not to have people around him. It's just — again, it's baffling," he concluded.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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