A Storied New York Hilton Adds a Grim Chapter to Its History

• Dec. 4, 2024Updated 3:38 p.m. ET

It’s the quintessential Manhattan hotel, somehow both drab and sleek, an emblem of the gray and glass aesthetic of the city that appears in thousands of beloved Hollywood films and series. The Midtown Hilton — or technically, the New York Hilton Midtown — is one of the city’s largest hotels, and the largest Hilton in the continental United States, with nearly 2,000 rooms.

Nestled inconspicuously on West 54th Street, among the marble towers of Sixth Avenue, not far from the Museum of Modern Art and Rockefeller Center, it has hosted the Emmy Awards, Donald Trump’s victory speech in 2016, Elvis Presley and the Beatles and the journalists who holed up in its rooms with the Pentagon Papers. It has seen history go by, since opening its doors in the 1960s, in addition to countless corporate conferences.

And early on Wednesday morning, it became the backdrop for a high-profile killing, when a masked man gunned down Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, near an entrance, before fleeing on a bicycle.

“Someone got shot outside,” an attendee of a conference was overheard saying on his way upstairs, where people were chatting over cups of coffee before the day’s events began. It seemed like just another day of business-minded mingling.

That someone would turn out to be Mr. Thompson, a head of one of the nation’s largest health insurers, and one of the scheduled speakers at the event, the UnitedHealth Group’s Investor Conference 2024. As attendees gathered, news crews were massing on the street below, the police were searching for the hooded shooter, and, at Mount Sinai West, a hospital just uptown, Mr. Thompson, 50, was dead after sustaining gunshot wounds.

As the news spread, the conference was called off, attendees pulled off their lanyards and headed for the exits, carry-on luggage in tow.