Florida woman echoes suspected CEO shooter in threats to insurance company
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(LAKELAND, Fla.) — A Florida woman was arrested and charged this week for ending a phone call with her health insurance provider with threats that mimicked wording associated with the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter.
The incident occurred Tuesday when Briana Boston, a 42-year-old woman from Lakeland, was speaking with a representative from Blue Cross Blue Shield after she had been told that her medical claim was denied.
In an arrest affidavit obtained by ABC News, police said that near the end of the recorded conversation with the insurance provider, Boston can be heard saying, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”
Boston’s apparent threats nearly echo the words that were engraved on the bullet shell casings that authorities recovered from the scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot earlier this month.
Those engraved words were “deny,” “defend” and “depose.”
However, Boston’s words do match the title of a 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.”
The book was written by legal scholar and insurance expert Jay Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. It explores abuses of auto and homeowners insurance to “avoid paying justified claims,” according to its summary.
Luigi Mangione is a suspect in the killing, which has catapulted the nation’s health care industry into the spotlight. Mangione faces second-degree murder and a slew of other charges in both Pennsylvania and New York.
When Lakeland Police confronted Boston about the perceived threats, she apologized and said that she “used those words because it’s what is in the news right now,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Boston told authorities she does not own any guns and is not a threat, but went on to say that health care companies “deserve karma” and that they are “evil,” according to the document.
“Boston further stated the health care companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil,” police said in the affidavit.
ABC News has reached out to Blue Cross Blue Shield for comment.
Following the investigation, Boston was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism and booked at a jail in Polk County, according to police.
(NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla.) — An 18-year-old was arrested outside a Florida polling location Tuesday after police said he wielded a machete in order to intimidate voters.
Caleb James Williams faces charges of aggravated assaulted on a person 65 years of age or older and improper exhibition of a firearm or dangerous weapon.
In a press conference after the arrest, Neptune Beach Police Chief Michael J. Key said Williams “brandished a machete in an aggressive, threatening posture over his head” at two women, ages 71 and 54.
Williams was accompanied by seven other male teens, ages 16 and 17, who police said went to the Beaches Branch Library “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side.”
“The group was there for no other reason but for ill intentions to cause a disturbance,” Key said. “This is not an incident of solely a First Amendment protected right, but rather one where they were simply there to cause a ruckus.”
None of the other teens currently face any charges, but Key said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges are possible.
Duval County Democratic Party Chair Daniel Henry said in a statement the young men had been wielding flags bearing former President Donald Trump’s name during the incident, and that the individuals they confronted were carrying signs in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Henry described it as a “troubling act of intimidation” and thanked police for the swift response.
“Violence and intimidation have no place in our democratic process,” Henry said. “The Duval County Democratic Party stands with those who seek to express their views peacefully and without fear of reprisal.”
Key said he is “extremely proud” of police for their handling of the incident.
“Voting in our country is one of the most sacred and protected rights we have,” he said. “Ensuring everyone’s right to vote is crucial and it will not be impeded upon in Neptune Beach or Duval County.”
He also expressed his anger at the incident, and emphasized how seriously police will take such incidents.
“I don’t know if you can see the visceral anger I have, but I’m angry at this — I’m extremely angry at this.” Key said. “It is one thing to go up and exercise your First Amendment right, which we so dearly take as a sacred right to express. But again, the moment you move to violence, that goes out the window.”
“To say I’m disturbed is an understatement. I’m mad that this happened in Neptune Beach,” he added.
Police are in contact with Jerry Holland, the Duval County supervisor of elections, and Key said they are committed to protecting voters’ safety at the polls.
“This is a safe location to vote, it was a safe location to vote today before this incident, and it will continue to remain a safe location to vote,” he said.
(MIAMI, FLORIDA) — As Election Day nears, Donald Trump is continuing his long-standing effort to recast the violent events of Jan. 6, 2021, now calling it a “day of love” even as he tries to distance himself from what happened.
A Republican audience member, during a Univision town hall on Wednesday, pressed Trump on his actions that day as thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
“I want to give you an opportunity to win back my vote,” the participant said, adding he found Trump’s actions and alleged inaction on Jan. 6 a “little disturbing” and wanted to know why some of Trump’s former top administration officials are no longer supporting him — some even calling him a danger to national security and democracy.
Trump quickly went on defense and in the process repeated some false or misleading claims that have been long disproved or debunked.
The former president said he “totally disagreed” with then-Vice President Mike Pence’s adamance to his constitutional duty to uphold the certification process and not unilaterally reject the election results. Pence has said he is not endorsing Trump this cycle.
Trump then claimed thousands of his supporters who traveled to Washington “didn’t come because of me,” despite his posting on social media in mid-December 2020 that there would be a “big protest” on Jan. 6.
“Be there, will be wild!” Trump famously wrote on Twitter, where he’d amassed some 88 million followers.
One man who admitted to illegally entering the Capitol that day, Stephen Ayres, testified in court documents and before the House Jan. 6 committee that he was influenced heavily by Trump’s activity on social media to come to Washington for the rally at the Ellipse.
“They came because of the election,” Trump said on Wednesday. “They thought the election was a rigged election, and that’s why they came. Some of those people went down to the Capitol but I said peacefully and patriotically. Nothing done wrong at all.”
Trump went on to say, “Ashli Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. There were no guns down there.”
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Trump supporter and Air Force veteran, was fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as one of a group of rioters who tried to break into the House floor through barricaded entrances near the Speaker’s Lobby.
She was one of several people who died during or after the riot of various causes. Four officers who responded to the Capitol attack later died by suicide. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was pepper sprayed by rioters, suffered strokes and died the next day. A Washington medical examiner determined he died of natural causes but said his experience that day played a role.
The Justice Department has noted that in court it has been proven that “weapons used and carried on Capitol grounds include firearms; OC spray; tasers; edged weapons, including a sword, axes, hatchets, and knives; and makeshift weapons, such as destroyed office furniture, fencing, bike racks, stolen riot shields, baseball bats, hockey sticks, flagpoles, PVC piping, and reinforced knuckle gloves.”
More than 1,500 people have been federally charged with crimes associated with the Capitol attack, the Justice Department said earlier this year. That includes 571 charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents and 171 defendants charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
At least 943 individuals have pleaded guilty — including 161 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement and 67 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous or deadly weapon — and an additional 195 people have been found guilty at trial.
Approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot, the DOJ has said.
Jan. 6 began with Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, in which he did tell supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, as he now likes to note, but also stoked tensions by saying they have to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country.
“But that was a day of love,” Trump said at the Univision town hall. “From the standpoint of the millions, it’s like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I’ve ever spoken to before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke, and I used the term ‘peacefully and patriotically.'”
The comments come as Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance continue to deny the 2020 election outcome and downplay what transpired on Jan. 6.
Vance on Wednesday when asked if Trump lost the election replied, “No, I think there are serious problems in 2020 so did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
Vance has also said he wouldn’t have certified the election were he in Pence’s shoes in 2021.
The election denialism and Jan. 6 comments have prompted swift push back from Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris has cast Trump as a threat to democracy as the 2024 campaign enters its final weeks.
ABC News’ Jack Date, Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A man in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was stopped with a fake New Jersey ID and is being held for questioning in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The man had walked into a McDonald’s where a witness recognized him from the images circulated by police, sources said.
The man had a similar gun to the one used in Wednesday’s assassination-style killing outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the sources said. Altoona police also recovered a computer.
The NYPD is sending detectives to Altoona, the sources said. Altoona is in central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Before the shooting, the suspected gunman checked into an Upper West Side hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, police sources told ABC News.
Meanwhile, new video obtained by ABC News shows the killer waiting for Thompson moments before the shooting. The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.
The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson because he loitered while others wandered by.
Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.
On Wednesday morning, the masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”
Right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
The FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect arrived in New York on Nov. 24 on a bus that originated Atlanta, although it’s unclear if his travels began in Atlanta.
In New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team searched underwater in Central Park near the Bethesda Fountain.
