New York — They saw him smiling on the hostel’s security cameras, but they don’t know his name. While running away, he found an abandoned backpack, but it is unknown where it went.
As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer continues, investigators are pondering a tantalizing dichotomy. They have plenty of evidence, but the shooter still remains a mystery.
Police don’t know who he is, where he is or why he did it, but they are confident it was a targeted attack and not a random act.
“The network is strengthening,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday.
Hours after his remarks, police divers were seen searching a pond in Central Park, and the gunman fled after the shooting. Officers had been searching the park for days for possible clues and found his bag there on Friday.
Late Saturday, police released two more photos of the shooting suspect that appear to have been taken from a camera mounted inside the taxi. The first shows him looking from outside the vehicle, while the second shows him looking through the partition between the rear seat and the front of the cab. In both works, his face is partially obscured by a blue medical mask.
Police used surveillance video to track the gunman’s movements and said he appears to have left the city on a bus shortly after the shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown on Wednesday morning. He was seen on video at an uptown bus stop about 45 minutes later, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney.
As the high-profile search expands across the state, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to $10,000 offered by the NYPD. Police said they believe the suspect committed the crime alone.
Police did not provide an update on the investigation Saturday, but investigators are urging patience even though the killer is on the run.
Hundreds of detectives are combing through video recordings and social media, investigating tips from the public and interviewing people who may have information, including Thompson’s family and co-workers and a randomly assigned roommate at a Manhattan hostel where the gunman stayed.
“This is not ‘Blue Bloods.’ Kenney told reporters Friday that the issue will not be resolved in 60 minutes. “We are painstakingly examining every piece of evidence we can find.”
The culprit is believed to have paid cash at the hostel, presented false identification to police and paid cash for taxi rides and other transactions. He did not talk to other people in his dorm, and almost always covered his face with a mask, lowering it only when eating.
But investigators got a brief respite when they discovered security camera images showing an unguarded moment in which he briefly showed his face shortly after arriving in New York on November 24.
Police distributed the images to news outlets and social media, but have so far been unable to confirm his identity using facial recognition. That may be due to the angle of the image or limitations in how the NYPD uses the technology, Kenney said.
On Friday evening, investigators found a backpack worn by the shooter in Central Park, police said. They did not immediately reveal what was in it but said it would be tested and analyzed.
Another potential clue was a fingerprint on an item he purchased at Starbucks minutes before the shooting, which has so far proven useless in identifying him, Kenny said.
Police were able to track the gunman’s movements with the help of surveillance cameras installed on almost every building and block.
They know they ambushed Thompson at 6:44 a.m. when the executive arrived at the Hilton for the company’s annual investor meeting, using a 9mm handgun similar to the guns farmers use to subdue animals without making a loud noise. . They know that ammunition found near Thompson’s body was labeled with the words “delay,” “deny” and “destroy,” mimicking phrases used by insurance industry critics.
Kenney said the gunman knew the UnitedHealthcare group was holding a meeting at the hotel, and the route Thompson would take to get there suggested he may have been a disgruntled employee or customer.
Investigators knew from surveillance video that the shooter had fled into Central Park on a bicycle and abandoned it near 85th Street around 7 a.m.
He then walked a few blocks and took a taxi, arriving at the George Washington Bridge bus stop at 7:30 a.m. This bus stop is near the northern tip of Manhattan and provides commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington. .
Investigators don’t know what happened next. They are examining more surveillance footage but have not yet found any footage of the shooter boarding the bus or leaving the station.
“There is reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Police Chief Jessica Tisch told CNN on Friday.
Police confirmed through video that the criminal had been in the city 10 days before the shooting incident. He arrived at Manhattan’s main bus terminal on a Greyhound bus from Atlanta, but it’s unclear whether he boarded there or at one of about a half-dozen stops along the route.
Shortly thereafter, he took a taxi to a location near the Hilton Hotel and remained there for about 30 minutes, Kenny said.
On the night of his arrival, around 11 p.m., he took a taxi to the HI New York City Hostel. While chatting with an employee in the lobby, he briefly removed his mask and smiled, giving investigators a brief look at what they now rely on to identify and apprehend the killer.
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington, Jake Offenhartz, Cedar Attanasio and Karen Matthews in New York, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.
