A Florida woman has been arrested and charged after allegedly using the same language associated with the suspect in the murder of a top health insurance executive while on a phone call with her healthcare firm.
Briana Boston, 42, had just had a medical claim denied and was talking on a phone call with a representative from Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Lakeland resident then allegedly said: “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”
The language is the same as that found written on ammunition discovered at the scene of the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. The killing was carried out by a masked gunman, which also triggered a national outpouring on social media by Americans outraged at their treatment by their for-profit healthcare firms.
The words have been closely associated with the title of a 2010 book written by the legal scholar and insurance expert Jay Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, called Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is a suspect in the killing and faces second-degree murder and other charges in both Pennsylvania and New York. He was captured after an intense manhunt lasting several days.
According to the arrest affidavit obtained by ABC news when Lakeland police confronted Boston, she apologized and said that she “used those words because it’s what is in the news right now”.
Boston told police she did not own any guns and is not a threat. But she did say that healthcare companies “deserve karma” and were “evil” according to the document reported by ABC.
Boston was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.
