Police believe gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City

NEW YORK — The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer likely left New York City on a bus soon after the brazen ambush that has shaken corporate America, police officials said Friday.

Three days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still did not know the gunman’s whereabouts or a motive for the killing. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.

Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday’s shooting showed him riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C, according to Kenny.

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Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Kenny said. CNN first reported that the suspect may have escaped the city by bus.

Investigators found a backpack in Central Park that was carried by the shooter, police said Friday following a massive sweep to find it in a vast area with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and a densely wooded section called “The Ramble.”

The gunman made sure to conceal his identity with a mask during the attack and even while he ate, yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras. Thompson was shot outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

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The gunman arrived in New York City on Nov. 24, getting off a bus that originated in Atlanta and made several stops along the way, Kenny said.

A law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Friday that surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan, providing more clues about his actions in the days before the shooting.

He appeared to pay with cash in any establishment where he was captured on camera, said the official who was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Investigators have tested a discarded water bottle and protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. They also were trying to obtain additional information from a cell phone recovered from a pedestrian plaza where the gunman fled after shooting Thompson outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

Police have released photos of the suspected shooter that were taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The images, showing an unmasked man smiling in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel, add to a collection of photos and video circulated since the shooting — including footage of the attack itself, as well as images of the suspected gunman stopping at a Starbucks beforehand.

Surveillance images from the shooting show the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face — a look that would not have attracted attention on a chilly morning.

Investigators have learned the man lowered his mask at the front desk of the hostel because he was flirting with the woman who checked him in, the law enforcement official told the AP, leading to a photo of his face. The woman told investigators that during that encounter she asked to see his smile and he pulled down his mask, the official said.

Investigators believe the suspect used a fake New Jersey identification card, the official said, when he checked in at the hostel, which has a café along with shared and private rooms and is just blocks from Columbia University.

Employees who work at the hostel told investigators they remembered a man who almost always wore a mask when interacting with them or walking by the front desk. The person wore a jacket that looked like the one worn by the man in surveillance images, the official said.

Investigators believe the shooter had at least some firearms training and experience with guns, the official said.

Security video shows the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing several shots with a gun equipped with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam while the executive fell to the sidewalk.

The words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, one word on each of three bullets, Kenny said. A law enforcement official previously told the Associated Press that the words scrawled on the ammunition were “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.” The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is commonly used by lawyers and critics about insurers that delay payments, deny claims and defend their actions.

Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had been with Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.

The insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting in New York for investors. The company abruptly ended the conference after Thompson’s death.

UnitedHealth Group said it was focused on supporting Thompson’s family, ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring,” the company said.

UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans. It manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.

In October, UnitedHealthcare was named along with Humana and CVS in a Senate report detailing how its denial rate for prior authorizations for some Medicare Advantage patients has surged in recent years.

The shooting has shaken corporate America and the health insurance industry in particular, causing companies to reevaluate security plans and delete photos of executives from their websites. A different Minnesota-based health care company said Friday it was temporarily closing its offices out of an abundance of caution, telling employees to work from home.