UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooter likely got on a bus and left New York City, police say

New York Police community affairs officers enter the HI New York City Hostel on Thursday, where police say the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson may have stayed.

Stefan Jeremiah/AP

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Stefan Jeremiah/AP

The masked assailant who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this week likely left New York City, authorities said Friday afternoon.

“We have reason to believe he is no longer in New York City,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN.

Late Friday, the FBI said it was assisting the New York Police Department in the investigation and was offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators have been conducting a “very extensive video canvas” which included the area of Wednesday morning’s shooting in Midtown to uptown Manhattan.

In the same interview with CNN, Kenny said the suspect was last seen taking a taxi to 178th street and Broadway, which is the site of the George Washington Bridge Bus Station. The terminal is used by commuters traveling to New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., as well as upstate New York.

“We have video of him entering the Port Authority bus terminal. We don’t have any video of him exiting, so we believe he may gotten on a bus,” Kenny said, adding that it is unclear exactly what bus the gunman may have boarded.

There is also a “full sweep” of Central Park, where authorities believe the gunman left his backpack after the shooting, Tisch said.

Thompson, 50, was in Manhattan for an annual investor conference early Wednesday morning. When he arrived at a Midtown Hilton hotel, the suspect walked up to him from behind and fired several rounds.

The motive for the killing remains unclear, but the NYPD says the evidence indicates that the attack was premeditated and targeted.

So far, leads in the investigation include that the shooter used an electric bike after the shooting, the bullet casings found at the scene, and hostel where the suspect reportedly stayed beforehand. Police are also analyzing a phone recovered in an alleyway on the gunman’s escape route.

The attack of a top executive from one of America’s largest health insurers has sent shockwaves across the country. Late Thursday, UnitedHealth Group released a statement saying it has been “touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place.”

The company aims to support “Brian’s family” and ensure “the safety of our employees; and working with law enforcement to bring the perpetrator to justice,” it said.

Since Wednesday’s shooting, the company has faced a deluge of online complaints, outrage over the state of U.S. health care and anger over denied medical claims.

A New York police officer stands outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot on Wednesday.

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What the police know so far

The suspect had been “lying in wait for several minutes” outside the Midtown hotel on Wednesday morning, according to NYPD Police Commissioner Tisch. She added that “many people passed the suspect,” but he did not fire his weapon until Thompson appeared — one of the indications that the attack was targeted.

The suspect later fled the scene on foot before getting on an e-bike. He was last seen, via surveillance video, entering Central Park, which is more than 800 acres.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Wednesday the gunman appeared “proficient in the use of firearms” after surveillance video of the attack showed that “he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly.”

Investigators also found three discharged 9-millimeter shell casings on the scene. Written on the bullet casings were the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose”; police were exploring whether the words, used by health insurance industry critics, indicate a motive.

An unnamed law enforcement official told The Associated Press that employees at a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side reported seeing a man near the front desk who resembled the suspect shown in surveillance images released after the shooting.

According to the official, the man used a fake New Jersey ID card to check into the hostel. The NYPD has since released photos of an unmasked man, seen in the hostel lobby, as a person of interest.

What’s next in the investigation

Police continue to piece together the suspect’s motive and whereabouts on the fourth day of the investigation.

Gothamist reported Thursday that the NYPD had deployed dozens of drones to track the suspect’s movements and continues to sift through surveillance footage.

In terms of motive, the cryptic words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” scrawled on the bullet casings may provide some insight. Those words were similar to the title of the 2010 book by Jay M. Feinman called Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. Feinman declined NPR’s request for comment this week.

But a few key pieces of evidence remain missing, including the e-bike that the suspect used to escape. Authorities also said Wednesday that the surveillance video of the shooting lacked sound, and that police are still searching for the one witness who was near the victim during the attack.

On Wednesday, Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News that her husband had been facing threats. “There had been some threats,” she said. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

Police said they were also working with law enforcement in Minnesota, where Thompson lived, to identify threats made against the CEO in the past.