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MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of leaving drunken, threatening voicemail messages to a family member of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson just hours after his killing, according to federal prosecutors.
Thompson was gunned down in Manhattan in the early morning of Dec. 4, 2024, while en route to an annual investors’ conference. By that evening, prosecutors say 40-year-old Shane Daley had already left three profanity-laden voicemails to one of Thompson’s relatives after the attack.
“Yeah, fuck you. You fucking cunt,” Daley told the relative on the phone, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday. “Make sure to tell your fucking retarded ass kids that their dad died cause he was a fucking capitalist pig. 10.2 million a year, fucking insider trading bullshit. Making a fucking living off backs of poor Americans. You all deserve to fucking die and burn in hell. Fuck you. Fuck your fucking kids. Fucking suffer.”
Prosecutors say Daley left four messages like this on the work line of Thompson’s family member — three from the night of the shooting, and another days later on Dec. 7, where he called Thompson a “fucking douche bag” who “deserved to fucking die.”
Investigators say they obtained a warrant to search Daley’s phone last month. FBI agents approached him at his upstate home on July 30 to execute that warrant.
“When asked, Daley initially denied placing any threatening or harassing calls,” prosecutors claim. “However, when questioned specifically about the December 2024 time frame, Daley asserted that he had been drinking during that period and conceded that it was possible he made such calls.”
Prosecutors say Daley was arrested and arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Albany for cyberstalking, which carries a maximum term of five years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000.
“Brian Thompson was gunned down in midtown Manhattan,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York John Sarcone said in a statement. “Daley, as alleged, gleefully welcomed this tragedy and did all that he could to increase the Thompson family’s pain and suffering. My office and its partners will now do all that we can to hold him accountable for this vicious and outrageous conduct.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton, who is prosecuting Thompson’s killing, said he is working on this case alongside Sarcone and the Northern District.
“Daley threatened and harassed a grieving family in the immediate aftermath of a loved one’s murder,” Clayton said Wednesday. “These selfish, harmful and callous actions undermine public safety and will not be tolerated. This office, together with our law enforcement partners, will pursue and prosecute those who seek to intimidate victims and their families.”
Clayton’s office is seeking the death penalty for the man accused of killing Thompson: 27-year-old Maryland native and Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione.
Mangione was arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Dec. 9 — five days after the shooting and two days after Daley is accused of leaving his final message. Prosecutors say Mangione is the hooded assailant who shot Thompson from behind in the now-infamous security footage of the killing.
Thompson’s killer fled the scene of the crime in Midtown Manhattan on an e-bike, hopped in a cab that dropped him off in Upper Manhattan, then fled the state, according to prosecutors.
Mangione’s arrest sparked a wave of activism and fanfare, with some supporters of Mangione maintaining his innocence, pointing out flaws in the justice system and advocating against for-profit health care.
Mangione faces unusual dueling prosecutions for Thompson’s death. In federal court, Clayton accuses him of stalking Thompson and murdering him with a 3D-printed firearm. In New York County Supreme Court, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg claims Mangione killed Thompson in an act of terror, designed to elicit fear from other health care executives.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that the Justice Department would be seeking the death penalty against Mangione in his federal case. A federal grand jury indicted him for the murder later that month.
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