Leading social media sleuths with millions of followers are refusing to help law enforcement track down the assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The 50-year-old father-of-two was gunned down earlier this week in New York, with footage of the killing circulating on social media platforms.
Internet investigators who have regularly assisted in tracking down suspects have now chosen not to participate in the manhunt.
Those refusing to assist have included Savannah Sparks, a social media investigator with 1.3 million followers who has helped law enforcement track down suspects caught in viral videos.
When asked if she was working to find Thompson’s killer, Sparks responded: “Absolutely the f**k not.”
TizzyEnt – whose real name is Michael McWhorter – told his 6.7 million followers that the lack of public interest in finding the suspect was “unique”.
Another prominent online sleuth, thatdaneshguy, with 2 million followers, posted a video criticising the healthcare industry, saying: “I don’t have to encourage violence. I don’t have to condone violence by any means. But I also don’t have to help.”
TizzyEnt explained the widespread reluctance to help, telling his followers: “I don’t think it’s that difficult to figure out why. There isn’t a single person in this country who hasn’t themselves or had someone very near and dear to them suffer from the abysmal thing that is privatised healthcare.”
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He highlighted how patients are routinely denied care “for the most ridiculous reasons”.
More widely, a new Gallup poll has showed that Americans believe healthcare quality is at a 24-year low.
Alex Goldenberg, an adviser at The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, called the surge of social media posts praising Thompson’s killing “deeply concerning”.
Despite the lack of online assistance, police are making progress in the investigation of Thompson’s murder after the NYPD released images of the suspect, including one showing him smiling.
The potential assassin can be seen grinning after the ‘premeditated attack’X/NYPDOfficers have also discovered what they believe to be his backpack in Central Park on Friday.
The suspect’s movements have been traced through surveillance footage, showing him entering the park at 6.48am after the shooting.
He was later spotted exiting on 77th Street at 6.56am before taking a taxi and ultimately departing the city via the Port Authority bus terminal.
Police said that the assassin had arrived from Atlanta in late November and had been staying at an Upper West Side hostel.
The FBI has now joined the investigation, offering a £50,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.