An electronic traffic sign in Seattle, Washington, was hacked to display a message seemingly calling for CEOs to be killed.
The sign was displayed along the southbound lanes of Highway 99 near Dexter Avenue North. It read: “One less CEO, many more to go,” KOMO News reported.
The message along the busy Seattle highway appeared more than a week after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in New York City. Following the shooting, some business and healthcare companies removed the names, photos and bios of officials from corporate websites over fears of copycat attacks.
The Seattle sign belonged to a private construction contractor, not an official government entity such as the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), or the Washington State Department of Transportation, SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson told KOMO News.
The electronic message board was being used by construction and development company 601 Holdings LLC while it builds a hotel and apartment building nearby, The Seattle Timesreported. William Choi, a spokesperson for the developer, said they rented the message board from National Barricade, which programs the displayed messages.
A person who answered the phone at National Barricade said they didn’t know anything about the message when contacted by The Seattle Times.
Newsweek has contacted the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Washington Department of Transportation and National Barricade for comment via email outside regular working hours.
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Choi said that the sign’s message can be changed using a keyboard, which is locked and requires a password to access. He added that no one at 601 Holdings LLC knows the code to operate the keyboard.
“We are appalled at the message and had no part in changing the display,” Choi told The Seattle Times. “We’re not political.”
The sign was originally displaying a message warning drivers of an upcoming road closure.
One local resident expressed their outrage over the message targeting CEOs.
“It’s shocking, really, that this is where our country seems to be going,” Kelley Beebe told KIRO 7. “I don’t like it at all. The dialogue has gotten violent on both sides, and this is what people think is a solution.
“I don’t think violence is the solution, but obviously, people feel really desperate if they’re turning to rhetoric like that,” Beebe added.
Luigi Mangione has been charged with the December 4 murder of Thompson. He was arrested on Monday after being recognized at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, expects his client to plead not guilty to the gun charges he faces in Pennsylvania and the second-degree murder charge. Dickey said he will contest Mangione’s extradition to New York.
