In a completely deranged and tasteless stunt, New Yorkers staged a look-a-like competition based around the unnamed suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting.
Participants dressed like the suspect, wearing hooded jackets and face masks. One wore a shirt with the message that was on the bullet casings: “Deny, Defend, Depose.”
See for yourself:
Happening now at Washington Square Park: A United Healthcare CEO shooter lookalike competition, including people who intentionally and unintentionally dressed the part. pic.twitter.com/r96XNGuFqe
— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) December 7, 2024
Contestants at the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter lookalike contest in New York. https://t.co/rfQCB5d9Z2
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 7, 2024
New Yorkers hold shooter look-a-like contest to celebrate assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO pic.twitter.com/tJXYRVYjST
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) December 7, 2024
The New York Post has more details on this “look-a-like contest”:
New Yorkers mockingly celebrated the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Washington Square Park with a truly tasteless shooter look-a-like contest — as the frantic manhunt for the brazen killer entered its fourth day.
ADVERTISEMENTEight contestants donning hooded outerwear and face masks were surrounded Friday by dozens of onlookers, whose cheers amounted to votes in the nose-thumbing stunt.
The winner, whose green jacket and face covering made him a dead ringer for the cold-blooded assassin, said he headed toward the park after hearing about the contest that morning.
“I got no looks until I got over here and now everyone wants a picture with me,” he told The Post.
“He’s the one,” one onlooker remarked as he was introduced as “contestant number six.”
The wannabe doppelganger noted that he didn’t have to particularly dress up for the event, saying “I wear this everywhere.”
His killer looks landed him $50.
The champ said he’s had his own issues with health insurance companies covering some of his medications, although he admitted he is not a UnitedHealthcare customer.
“People do not feel great about the current state of things in our world,” he commented about the unsympathetic response to the CEO’s shocking slaying.
The Post Millennial added:
A lookalike competition inspired by the unidentified shooter who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was held in New York City on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENTThe contest appeared to celebrate the unidentified shooter who killed Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan last Wednesday, per the New York Post. A cash prize of $50 was set to be awarded to the winner of the contest.
The event follows a series of viral lookalike competitions in the city, which began in October with a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in Washington Square Park. That event gained widespread attention after Chalamet himself made a surprise appearance, and police intervened due to the large, unpermitted crowd, leading to several arrests. Similar contests have since been organized for other public figures.
Contestants were seen donning hooded outfits and masks resembling the shooter’s appearance in surveillance footage, while one participant wore a shirt emblazoned with the words “Deny,” “Defend,” and “Depose,” referencing the engravings reportedly found on the bullet casings used in the murder. The words are in reference to a phrase used by insurers to avoid paying claims to customers and defending their decisions to do so.
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