New Yorkers celebrate concert, not CEO death

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A viral social media claim suggesting New Yorkers celebrated the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been debunked as false.

The widely circulated Instagram video, which accumulated over 500,000 likes, shows a large crowd singing and dancing to Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten.” The post misleadingly claimed the gathering represented “NYC coming together to dance in the streets over the universal American love of [dead] CEOS.”

 

This is crazy. United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson assassinated. Shot in the back while walking down a public street at 6:40am.https://t.co/3oUw5yeSWG

— Ike Wingate | 🎙️Constitutional Conservative (@IkeWingate) December 4, 2024

However, the original footage was first shared on TikTok by user @rachael__burke on November 21, documenting a spontaneous sidewalk celebration following Bedingfield’s concert at Webster Hall. This performance was confirmed by both Ticketmaster’s event listing for November 20 and Bedingfield’s own Instagram announcement from November 18.

The timing further disproves the false narrative, as Thompson’s tragic death occurred on December 4, when he was fatally shot while heading to UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference, as reported by The Associated Press.

Luigi Mangione, alleged suspect in the killing of UHC CEO Brian Thompson.

The manhunt has now ended with investigators declaring "too hot to convict" pic.twitter.com/HmDozFgjdW

— Johann Pablo Petersen (@DarkLordeBryan) December 9, 2024

Snopes also investigated the claim on December 9, confirming that the video depicted post-concert festivities and had no connection to Thompson’s death. The fact-checking organization’s findings conclusively demonstrated that the viral post had misrepresented the joyful scene from the Bedingfield concert as something entirely different.