By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press
The masked gunman who killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies in front of midtown Manhattan surveillance cameras remained free Thursday from the dragnet thrown by the nation’s largest police department.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in the dawn ambush Wednesday. Thompson was walking to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown, blocks from tourist draws like Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art.
On Thursday, a law enforcement official said the shooter had used ammunition with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on it. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The words on the ammunition may have been a reference to strategies insurance companies use to try to avoid paying claims.
Police said Thompson was heading to the company’s annual investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown around 6:45 a.m. when a person walked up behind him and shot him.
Thompson was alone and did not have bodyguards, police said.
Officers found Thompson on the ground with wounds to his back and right calf, according to Joseph Kenny, the NYPD chief of detectives. The CEO was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 7:12 a.m.
Kenny said the shooter wore a black face mask, black-and-white sneakers, and a distinctive gray backpack.
He arrived outside the hotel about five minutes before Thompson did, then waited and ignored other pedestrians before he approached Thompson from behind.
After the assailant began to fire, his 9 mm pistol jammed but he quickly fixed it and kept firing, Kenny said, another sign of the shooter’s professionalism.
“From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” Kenny said.
The shooter ran into an alleyway near the hotel and later got on the e-bike that he took into Central Park.
Police initially said the shooter rode into Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-share program, CitiBike. But a spokesperson for the program’s operator, Lyft, said police officials informed the company Wednesday afternoon that the bike was not from the CitiBike fleet.
Kenny said police found a cellphone in the alleyway, but it was unclear if it belonged to the shooter.
As of Thursday morning, police were still searching for the shooter.
They released new photos of a person they said is wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting. The images match the lobby of the HI New York City hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, including its black-and-white checkered floor and a distinctive bench in the shape of a semi-circle.
An employee at the hostel said police had visited but declined to provide further information. Danielle Brumfitt, a spokesperson for the lodging, said in an emailed statement that they are cooperating with the NYPD but can’t comment due to the active investigation.
The hunt brought officers to at least two hostels in that neighborhood, based on a tip that the suspected shooter may have stayed at one of them, according to a second law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing search.
An employee at the Kama Central Park hostel confirmed to the AP that two detectives arrived at 7 a.m. and asked staff whether they recognized the man in a photo of the shooter. The workers did not, the employee said.
According to the official who spoke to AP about the ammunition messaging, investigators are running DNA and fingerprint analysis on items found near the shooting, including a water bottle, that they believe the suspect may have discarded. Additionally, they are looking into whether the suspect had pre-positioned a bike as part of an escape plan.
Thompson was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the insurance wing of parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc.
He had worked at the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company for two decades and led its insurance division since 2021. He was one of the company’s highest-paid executives, with a $10.2 million annual compensation package.
Thompson kept a low profile, with UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s CEO Andrew Witty taking on a more public-facing role that included testifying before Congress.
Thompson started his career as a certified public accountant and graduated from the University of Iowa. He lived in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove and was the married father of two sons in high school,
His wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that her husband said some people had been threatening him. She did not have details, but suggested they may have involved issues with insurance coverage.
Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive.
Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this story.
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