An employee stabbed the president of their manufacturing company during a staff meeting, police say

• An employee at a Michigan company stabbed its president during a staff meeting, police said.
• A suspect, who fellow employees describe as quiet, fled the scene but was subsequently arrested.
• Authorities are investigating if the attack was inspired by the recent UnitedHealthcare CEO killing.

An employee stabbed the president of a Michigan manufacturing company during a staff meeting on Tuesday morning, according to local police.

Now, authorities are looking into whether the attack might have had a "copycat" motive inspired by the recent killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

The Fruitport Township Police Department said in a news release that the stabbing took place at about 9.20 a.m. on Tuesday, at Anderson Express Inc. in Muskegon, about 40 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.

Police said that a preliminary investigation found that a 32-year-old male employee stabbed Erik Denslow, the president of the company, in the side with a knife.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Denslow was out of surgery, and police said he was in a serious but stable condition.

Anderson Express did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Police said the suspect fled the scene in his vehicle before being stopped and taken into custody about 15 minutes later. They identified him as Nathan Joseph Mahoney.

Speaking to local media, police said Mahoney had only worked at the company for about two weeks. The news release said that fellow employees described him as having a "quiet demeanor."

Muskegon County Sheriff's Office records show that Mahoney is being held on a more than $500,000 bond.

Denslow has been president of Anderson Express for a little under two years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Authorities are exploring potential motives, including if it was inspired by the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, who was fatally shot earlier this month, leading to a widely publicized manhunt and the subsequent arrest of Luigi Mangione.

"We haven't ruled out copycat motive in regards to this," Fruitport Township deputy police chief Greg Poulson told local outlet News 8 on Wednesday.

He added: "We're going through all his social accounts, all his electronic media and trying to determine a motive for this act."

Poulson also told News 8 that threatening CEOs and high-profile business people "seems to be a popular thing in this day and age."