New York — A manhunt continued Monday for the gunman who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson five days earlier in what authorities said appeared to have been a targeted attack.
Authorities searched on land and in water in hopes of finding the murder weapon, probing Central Park for clues while the U.S. Marshals Service worked to determine where the person of interest boarded the bus that took him to New York City. Dive teams with the New York City Police Department returned to Central Park Monday and cordoned off the lake behind the Bethesda Fountain, a landmark, after they were seen near that area throughout the weekend.
Police have said they are focusing on the weapon because detectives may be able to find out who owned it and where it was purchased if it is found. They are referring to the individual seen in surveillance footage as a “person of interest” in the deadly shooting because of the lack of concrete evidence so far in this case.
A New York City hostel — where photos were taken of a person of interest with his mask pulled down, as he talked to a woman at the front desk — is now at the center of the investigation. New York police interviewed the woman, who told officers she asked to “see his pretty smile,” a high-ranking source told CBS News.
“They were having a flirtatious moment and he pulls it down and he gives a big smile and that one informal moment between two human beings remains at this moment the most significant clue to date in this whole case,” said John Miller, former New York City Police Department deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism.
A photo of a person of interest wanted in connection with the Dec. 4, 2024 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. / Credit: NYPD Crime Stoppers
A person familiar with the matter told CBS News on Dec. 6 that investigators believed the person of interest was no longer in New York City. He may have boarded a bus at a Manhattan bus terminal bound for Atlanta, the person familiar said.
Joseph Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, told reporters in a Dec. 6 briefing that investigators don’t know what bus the man may have taken.
Also on Dec. 6, the NYPD said it found a backpack in Central Park that was being analyzed to determine if it belonged to the suspected gunman in the shooting. CBS News learned on Dec. 7 that the recovered backpack contained a jacket. A person familiar with the investigation told CBS News the jacket was not the one the suspect was wearing during the shooting. The backpack also contained monopoly money, the person said. NYPD divers were seen searching the lake in Central Park on Saturday afternoon, and sources told CBS News New York they were looking for the murder weapon.
The FBI, which is assisting the NYPD in its investigation, is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
A photo of a person of interest wanted in connection with the Dec. 4, 2024 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. / Credit: NYPD Crime Stoppers
What we know about the suspect in CEO shooting
The suspect had not been identified as of Monday morning — five days after police said he shot and killed 50-year-old Thompson multiple times around 6:45 a.m. outside the Hilton Midtown hotel on Sixth Avenue near West 54th Street in New York City. Thompson was not a guest at the Hilton but was staying at another hotel nearby and walking to the Hilton for a corporate event when he was attacked.
The shooting happened ahead of an investors conference that UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, was scheduled to host on Wednesday at the Hilton, according to a spokesperson for the subsidiary.
The suspect is a light-skinned man and was wearing a grey colored backpack, which Kenny described as “very distinctive.” Kenny said at a press conference Wednesday that the gunman was also wearing a light brown or cream-colored jacket, black face mask and black-and-white sneakers.
The NYPD released these surveillance images of the suspect in the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. / Credit: NYPD
The suspect appeared to be lying in wait for Thompson for several minutes, newly sworn-in Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during Wednesday’s news conference. A senior NYPD official told CBS News that the suspect’s arrival before Thompson indicates he knew where the CEO was staying and when he would arrive at the conference.
“Based on the evidence we have so far it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted, but we don’t know why,” Kenny said Wednesday.
Police believe the suspect used a B&T Station SIX pistol to carry out the shooting, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. Investigators have been visiting gun dealers in Connecticut looking for where it may have been purchased.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke to reporters at a Police Athletic League event in Harlem on Dec. 7, said police know the name of the person of interest, but are not sharing it publicly.
“We don’t want to release that now,” Adams said. “If you do, you are basically giving a tip to the person…we’re seeking, and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all. Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask.”
Before the shooting
Kenny told reporters that the person of interest was seen on security video arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Nov. 24.
Police were able to identify him with surveillance video of him walking through the terminal, police sources with direct knowledge of the investigation previously told CBS News. That video was used to trace him to a Greyhound bus.
It is unclear when the person of interest got on the bus, whether it was in Atlanta or on another stop along the way.
Investigators with the NYPD and U.S. Marshals Service have been dispatched to Atlanta and along the Greyhound bus route stops between Atlanta and New York City in an effort to find out where the suspect boarded the bus that took him to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Investigators are canvassing Greyhound terminals and reviewing surveillance footage to try to pin down where he boarded the bus.
From the Port Authority, he took a cab to the vicinity of the Hilton Midtown hotel — near where the fatal shooting of Thompson occurred on Dec. 4 — and was there for about 30 minutes. He then took a cab to a hostel, Kenny said. He briefly checked out of the hostel on Nov. 29, Kenny said, but then checked back in on Nov. 30.
When the person was in New York City, he used a fake ID with a fake name to check in to the Hostelling International New York City, a hostel on Amsterdam Avenue, in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The official said police believe the name on the ID was made up and does not belong to anyone else.
Kenny said that the person of interest had two roommates while he was staying at the hostel, but he did not know them. He kept his mask on the entire time he was at the hostel, except for one moment when he pulled it down on Nov. 24 during a flirtatious moment at the hostel’s front desk.
The NYPD shared two images Thursday showing the person at the hostel. They did not say when the photos were taken.
Surveillance photos show a person who police say they want to question in connection to Wednesday’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. / Credit: NYPD
The hostel told CBS News it could not comment on the active investigation but said it was “fully cooperating with the NYPD.” Three detectives were seen leaving the hostel Thursday at around 5:15 p.m. after spending roughly an hour inside.
Police are using surveillance footage to determine how the suspect spent the hours before the shooting. At 5 a.m. Wednesday, about two hours before the attack, surveillance cameras captured the suspect outside near the Frederick Douglass Housing Project on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to NYPD officials. Police executed a search warrant at a building in the area on Wednesday night. Police said they believe the suspect may have stayed there the night before the attack.
Surveillance video obtained by CBS News appears to show the suspect walking out of a Midtown subway station at around 6:15 a.m., half an hour before the shooting.
Police also released surveillance images showing the suspect at a Starbucks two blocks from the shooting scene at 6:17 a.m. The surveillance footage of the suspect emerging from the subway was taken from a store on the same block as the Starbucks. Police told CBS News they found unspecified “forensic evidence” at the Starbucks and that items recovered there are being tested for possible DNA and fingerprints by the NYPD’s Crime Scene Unit. The suspect paid with cash, police said.
A surveillance image of the suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. / Credit: New York City Police Department
The suspect then waited for Thompson, police said. The CEO was staying at another hotel across the street from the Hilton, Kenny said Wednesday. Thompson left his hotel shortly after 6:40 a.m. and headed to the Hilton. Kenny said police are speaking to Thompson’s coworkers to understand why he was headed to the hotel so early, but said the CEO was in charge of the conference and may have been going over to help set up.
The suspect approached Thompson from behind at 6:44 a.m., then shot him at least once in the back and once in the right calf. A security camera captured the moment of the shooting.
Following the suspect’s escape route
The suspect first fled the site of the shooting on foot, then got on a bike and headed north into Central Park. The suspect was seen in the park on surveillance footage.
Tisch initially said the suspect used an electronic Citi Bike to get away, but Lyft said the NYPD later told the company, which owns and operates Citi Bike, that was not the case.
This map shows a timeline of the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024 in New York City. / Credit: CBS News
Kenny elaborated on the escape timeline in his Dec. 6 briefing, telling reporters that, following the shooting, the person of interest is seen entering Central Park on a bike at 6:48 a.m., and then exiting the park about 8 minutes later.
By 7 a.m., he is headed north on West 86th Street, but no longer on the bike, according to Kenny. At about 7:04 a.m., he gets in a cab at West 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave. and takes it to the Port Authority Bus Terminal near the George Washington Bridge.
But investigators are still unclear which bus he may have taken, Kenny said.
A joint law enforcement task force said they were conducting a reverse video canvass, where investigators will look at footage from all cameras from the crime scene and in the surrounding areas to try to track the suspect’s escape route.
The canvass showed the suspect exiting the west side of the park somewhere between 70th and 80th streets. Police are examining surveillance video of what appears to be the suspect at 6:59 a.m., about 15 minutes after the shooting, riding a bike on West 85th Street.
Police are examining surveillance video of what appears to be the suspect at 6:59 a.m. riding a bike on West 85th Street.
On Dec. 6, the NYPD said it found a backpack in Central Park that was being analyzed to determine if it belonged to the suspected gunman. The suspect is believed to have disposed of his backpack in the park following the attack. CBS News obtained a photo of the backpack from the NYPD.
A backpack found in New York City’s Central Park on Dec. 6, 2024, that investigators believe may have belonged to the suspected gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. / Credit: CBS News
What evidence has police found?
Three live 9 mm rounds and three discharged 9 mm shell casings were recovered from the scene, Kenny said.
The words “delay,” “deny” and possibly “depose” were written on the shell casings and bullets recovered at the scene, NYPD officials told CBS News on Thursday. The words were written meticulously in Sharpie, according to a source briefed on the investigation.
Investigators were looking at whether the words point to a motive related to insurance companies’ responses to claims, the law enforcement officials said. Investigators believe this could be a reference to the “three D’s of insurance,” a known reference made by opponents of the industry, two law enforcement sources told CBS News. They are also similar to the words used as the title of a book published in 2010 about the denial of insurance claims.
ABC News first reported that the words were found written on the shell casings recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Kenny said the suspect appeared to be proficient in the use of firearms, noting that the suspect appeared to quickly fix a jam in his weapon. The suspect also had a silencer on the weapon, the NYPD said.
Police also found a cell phone along the route the suspect used to flee the scene. Police are doing a forensic analysis of the device to determine if it belongs to the suspect, Kenny said. Police told CBS News the phone has “investigative value,” but wouldn’t elaborate and would not say who the phone belonged to.
Police recovered a coffee cup they believe the suspect discarded, based on surveillance video, from a trash can outside the Starbucks. That cup was dusted for latent fingerprints and has been sent to the NYPD crime lab in Queens for DNA testing which has been fast-tracked.
Investigators and security at UnitedHealthcare are combing through files searching for a possible motive, looking for possible previous threats, and disgruntled or recently fired workers, a law enforcement source said. The company said it is cooperating with the investigation. Police are also looking at social media and interviewing employees, family members and others who knew Thompson, Kenny said.
Pat Milton, Rich Esposito, Brook Silva-Braga, John Doyle and Christina Fan contributed reporting.
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