A DISGRUNTLED employee has allegedly stabbed his company boss in a possible copycat attack of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Erik Denslow, head of Michigan-based manufacturing company Anderson Express Inc., was knifed during a staff meeting in his firm’s office on Tuesday.
Employee Nathan Mahoney, 32, has been charged with stabbing the company president at the firm’s office in Muskegon, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
Denslow was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition, according to police.
He was knifed in the side before the suspect fled the scene in his vehicle, according to investigators.
Denslow is expected to survive.
No motive has yet been determined, although investigators are not ruling out the possibility it was a “copycat” of December 4’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York hotel.
“I think that comes to everyone’s mind in this time,” Deputy Police Chief Greg Poulson told local NBC affiliate WOOD-TV.
“We’re going through all his social accounts, all his electronic media and trying to determine a motive for this act.”
Denslow had taken over as president of Anderson Express Inc. for less than two years.
Anderson Express works with the automotive and defense sectors.
The company released a statement saying it was “in shock” over the incident.
Executives say they “are also focused on supporting our employees as they process this senseless assault.”
Anderson Express did not respond immediately to The U.S. Sun’s requests for comment.
On Thursday, Thompson’s suspected killer, Luigi Mangione, 26, arrived in New York, where he faces federal murder charges over the killing.
Mangione was flanked by armed cops as he returned to New York two weeks after he allegedly shot Thompson in the back as he arrived at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel for an investors’ meeting.
In the wake of Thompson’s death, a number of CEOs have stepped up their security measures over fears of copycat attacks.
Thompson had no personal security with him as he walked into the Manhattan hotel.
An internal New York Police Department bulletin warned this week that the wave of support for Mangione could signal an immediate “elevated threat” to execs.
Mocked-up “Wanted” posters of healthcare executives were plastered in Manhattan, while graffiti referencing the words “Deny, defend, depose,” allegedly written on the bullets used in Thompson’s death, have been spotted across the country.
“The heinous murder of Brian Thompson was a reminder of the importance of corporate security and personal protection for executives, and it certainly generated a lot of inquiries to security services firms while also leading to many corporate security teams taking action to revisit their strategies and determine what they could learn from that awful attack,” Geoff Kohl, senior director of marketing at the Security Industry Association, told the Dayton Daily News.
No official motive has yet been given for Mangione’s alleged actions, but investigators are looking into theories that he was motivated by his personal vendetta against UnitedHealthcare and the US healthcare industry more generally.
