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Saturday Night Live was slammed after making fun of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.
Colin Jost, the host of SNL's Weekend Update alongside Michael Che, roasted the police investigation since the murder suspect was able to flee the crime scene on a bike and catch a bus out of the city.
'This week, New York City officials sent a tough message on crime,' Jost started the segment. 'If you shoot somebody in the middle of the street, you better get on your bike, hop on a bus, and get the heck out of here, mister.'
Jost also pointed out the two prevailing reactions to the murder of the 50-year-old health insurance executive, which occurred in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, didn't include sympathy for him or his family.
Americans seem to be more focused on UnitedHealthcare's disturbing track record of denying insurance claims - or on how 'hot' the suspect is based on the photo of him smiling at a hostel worker he was flirting with, according to Jost.
'It really says something about America that a guy was murdered in cold blood and the two main reactions were, "Yeah, well health care stinks,” and also, "Girl, that shooter hot,"' he said.
Che built on the joke, suggesting that the name of the hostel worker who flirted with the alleged killer was 'Lucky S. Bechalive.'
Later in the segment, Jost again needled the NYPD, who recently began searching Central Park Lake after finding the suspected shooter's bag nearby.
Colin Jost, who co-hosts Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update with Michael Che, started off the segment by poking fun at the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO
Brian Thompson (pictured) who had been CEO of UnitedHealthcare since April 2021, was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital after the shooting, and he was later pronounced dead
A mystery gunman (pictured in surveillance footage) fatally shot Brian Thompson, 50, the CEO of America's biggest health insurer, in Midtown Manhattan early on Wednesday morning
'It’s also so crazy that the shooting happened three blocks from here in broad daylight, and the guy just bicycles away, probably because they have every cop in the city guarding our Christmas tree,' he said, referencing the tree that was recently put up and lit in Rockefeller Center.
Jost's final zinger was about the Port Authority bus station the alleged shooter left the city from not long after gunning down Thompson.
'NYPD now believes the suspect left the city on a bus from Port Authority,' Jost said. 'Thanks, but a Port Authority passenger who looks like a murderer actually widens the search.'
Some on social media thought these jokes were 'classless' and 'terrible' for making light of Thompson's death.
One person thought SNL 'stooped to a new low' and criticized the show for its supposedly 'liberal' outlook.
'Saturday Night Live has really stooped to a new low. The CEO Brian Thompson’s death should not be a joke! I am so tired of their liberal s**t! It used to be funny but now they are focusing on the View's audience,' they wrote.
However, Jost and Che's latest outing as pretend news hosts, in which they also joked about Pete Hegseth's struggles amid being nominated as Defense Secretary, was mostly lauded by viewers.
The latest development in the citywide manhunt for the killer of Thompson, who led the nation's largest health insurer since 2021, is that police may have a name for the suspect.
The unidentified man who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO was spotted at a counter at a nearby Starbucks in the moments before he opened fire
When asked on Saturday whether investigators knew his name, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said: 'We don't want to release that now,' according to the New York Post.
'If we do, we are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all,' the former NYPD captain added.
'Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We're going to reveal who he is and we're going to bring him to justice... The net is tightening.'
The NYPD released new photographs of the assassin Saturday night. He has been described as white and around 6'1" tall, but scarce other details have been given.
Police said the killer shot Thompson in the back and leg outside the New York Hilton Midtown on West 54th Street at around 6:45am on Wednesday.
Thompson was headed to United Healthcare's annual investor's conference at the Hilton's ballroom where he was expected to reveal the company expected record sales of $450 billion.
The masked assassin fired several shots during the ambush and even jammed his gun in the process, which he managed to clear quickly to continue firing.
Thompson was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but died from his injuries shortly afterwards.
He is survived by his wife Paulette 'Pauley' Thompson, 51, and their two children who live in the family's $1.5 million home in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Following the shooting, the suspect was picked up on 86th Street and Columbus Avenue two minutes after he left Central Park in Manhattan's Upper West Side
One of the images show the killer - who has a fresh coat and face mask on - walking down a Manhattan sidewalk
Ammunition found near Thompson's body bore the words 'delay,' 'deny' and 'depose', mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics.
The killer fled the scene by riding an electric bike up 6th Avenue towards Central Park, and he was spotted leaving the park at 6.56am.
The latest images of the killer appear to have been taken inside the taxi which picked him up on 86th Street and Columbus Avenue two minutes after he left Central Park.
Retracing the gunman's steps using surveillance video, police say, it appears he left the city by bus around 45 minutes after the shooting.
He was seen on video at an uptown bus station, according to NYPD chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
'This isn't Blue Bloods. We're not going to solve this in 60 minutes,' Kenny told reporters on Friday. 'We're painstakingly going through every bit of evidence that we can come across.'
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