Market Data 
- UnitedHealthcare’s CEO appeared not to have a bodyguard when he was shot Wednesday in Manhattan.
- Two security consultants told Business Insider that was unusual.
- Even if he’d had a bodyguard, it may not have saved his life, one said.
Two executive protection consultants say they were surprised UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson didn’t appear to have a bodyguard when he was shot and killed walking into a hotel in midtown Manhattan Wednesday — though one said it likely wouldn’t have saved his life.
The manhunt for Thompson’s shooter continues on Thursday. Police said the shooter waited for Thompson to walk into a Hilton hotel where an investor conference was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Wednesday, shot Thompson in the back, and fled the scene first on foot and then on an electric bike.
It’s not clear whether Thompson had a security detail, but in the video of the shooting shared by the New York Police Department, he appears to be walking toward the hotel alone. A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brittney Blair, who specializes in consulting executives about their personal security for the risk management firm K2 Integrity, said she was “floored, honestly,” that Thompson did not appear to have a bodyguard.
“I’ve seen a lot of CEOs and high-profile business leaders who sometimes feel that corporate security is maybe a little bit overboard,” she said. “They feel — I don’t want to say untouchable, but they maybe underestimate how much of a public figure they are.”
Thompson appeared to live somewhat modestly relative to the $10.2 million he received in compensation last year, in a combination of cash and stock grants, SEC records show. He resided in a Minneapolis suburb, in a home purchased for just over $1 million in 2018, tax records show.
His wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that her husband had received threats.
“There had been some threats,” she said. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Paulette Thompson couldn’t be reached for comment by BI.
Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent who now runs the private security firm LaSorsa and Associates, said that a round-the-clock protective detail costs in the neighborhood of $100,000 a month. But, he said, even if Thompson had such a security detail, it might not have stopped a motivated shooter.
“I know it sounds extreme, but you’re not going to mitigate a killing if someone’s hell-bent on doing it to you. Sooner or later, they’re going to succeed,” said Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent who now runs the private security firm LaSorsa and Associates.
If Thompson had been walking with a bodyguard, “and they’d both had their backs turned, they both would have been shot,” LaSorsa said.
