With investigators believing the man who shot an insurance company CEO to death on a New York street left the city — and likely the state — by bus, the FBI has joined in the hunt for the still unidentified suspect, adding a $50,000 reward to $10,000 offered by New York police.
#FBINewYork is assisting @NYPDNews in seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the unknown suspect responsible for the shooting death of a 50-year-old male victim in Midtown Manhattan. pic.twitter.com/gGp8Ss8Qne
— FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) December 7, 2024
New York Mayor Eric Adams implied Saturday that investigators have learned the gunman’s name, telling reporters at a Police Athletic League party in Harlem that the “net is tightening,” the New York Post reported.
Asked if investigators had learned the shooter’s name, Adams coyly said that “we don’t want to release that now.”
“If we do, we are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all,” Adams said. “Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We’re going to reveal who he is and we’re going to bring him to justice.”
The mayor’s office later told Post that he meant to say that officials would neither confirm nor deny they have identified the gunman.
The masked killer laid in wait early Wednesday morning for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, to arrive outside the Hilton Midtown Hotel, where the largest health insurer in the world was to hold its annual investors’ conference that morning. Surveillance video showed the suspect step behind Thompson, walking alone with no security, and begin firing.
The gunman fled on foot into a nearby alley, where he hopped on a bike and rode into Central Park. Fifteen minutes after the shooting, he was seen on another video riding out of the park, now without the gray backpack he had been wearing. Canvassers found the backpack in Central Park on Friday, and according to the Post, the jacket he was wearing when he shot Thompson was inside. No other outlets have reported on the finding of the jacket.
The shooter was later seen on foot at Columbus Avenue and West 86th Street, where he hailed a taxi that took him to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, a Port Authority operated terminal at 178th Street. Surveillance video showed him entering the bus station, but he was not seen exiting, leaving investigators to believe he boarded a bus.
Video obtained by FOX 5 NY shows the suspected CEO killer riding a bike at 6:58 a.m. Wednesday on the Upper West Side. He later flees NYC — here’s the possible escape route: pic.twitter.com/XgnEgs4OGR
— FOX 5 NY (@fox5ny) December 6, 2024
“Those buses are interstate buses. That’s why we believe he may have left New York City,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said, according to WCBS.
All of that took place on Wednesday, and since then detectives have been collecting imagery of the suspect from his arrival in the city on November 24 until his departure as well as following up on reported sightings outside the city, WABC reported. On Friday, detectives who following up on leads in Texas and Atlanta — where the bus that brought the suspect to New York originated, although police have no idea where along the 870 mile route the gunman may have boarded.
Authorities even stopped an Amtrak train in Connecticut and a Long Island Rail Road train on Thursday but found nothing.
Police have collected more than 200 images of the suspect, WNBC reported, including two from the Upper West Side hostel where he stayed — and briefly dropped his mask in a flirtatious moment with a woman working behind the desk who asked to see his smile.
Police also said investigators have spoken with the gunman’s roommates at the hostel, who said he didn’t speak with them. They found nothing of value in a search of the room.
Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, police divers were seen near Bethesda Fountain
Police divers combed through a pond in Central Park Saturday for more clues into their hunt for the suspect involved with gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel earlier in the week.
The NYPD search for the unidentified suspect, now in its fourth day, took them to the waters of Bethesda Fountain near the middle of Central Park, not far from where the backpack was found, ABC News reported.
