One conclusion they are confident of, however: It was a targeted attack, not a random one.
NEW YORK — Police don’t know who he is, where he is, or why he did it.
The search for the individual behind the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson began on Sunday, which was the fifth day of the investigation. Despite gathering a significant amount of evidence, authorities are still unable to determine the identity of the person who pulled the trigger.
One conclusion they are confident of, however: It was a targeted attack, not a random one.
The perpetrator attacked Thompson at 6:44 a.m. on Wednesday as he was arriving at the Hilton for his company’s yearly investor conference. The weapon used was a 9mm pistol resembling those used by farmers for euthanizing animals quietly. Additionally, the bullets found near Thompson’s body were inscribed with the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose,” echoing a commonly used phrase among critics of the insurance industry.
It is believed that the shooter had knowledge of the UnitedHealthcare conference taking place at the hotel and was familiar with Thompson’s likely path to the event. This led NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny to suggest that the suspect could potentially be a dissatisfied employee or customer of UnitedHealthcare.
Police divers were seen searching a pond in Central Park, where the killer fled after the shooting. Officers have been scouring the park for days for any possible clues and found his backpack there Friday. They didn’t immediately reveal what, if anything, it contained but said it would be tested and analyzed.
On Sunday morning, police declined to comment on the contents of the backpack, or on the results of the search in the pond, saying no updates were planned. Investigators have urged patience, saying the process of logging evidence that stands up in court isn’t as quick as it looks like on TV.
Hundreds of detectives are combing through video recordings and social media, vetting tips from the public and interviewing people who might have information, including Thompson’s family and coworkers and the shooter’s randomly assigned roommates at the Manhattan hostel where he stayed.
Investigators caught a break when they came across security camera images of an unguarded moment at the hostel in which he briefly showed his face.
Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, police say, it appears he left the city by bus soon after the shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown. He was seen on video at an uptown bus station about 45 minutes later, Kenny said.
With the high-profile search expanding across state lines, 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 that the NYPD has offered. Police say they believe the suspect acted alone.
Police distributed the images to news outlets and on social media but so far haven’t been able to ID him using facial recognition — possibly because of the angle of the images or limitations on how the NYPD is allowed to use that technology, Kenny said.
Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask.
