(Reuters) – Authorities have identified and are closing in on the man suspected of killing UnitedHealth (N: ) CEO Brian Thompson, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told the New York Post on Saturday.
“The net is tightening,” Adams told reporters at the Police Athletic League’s Harlem holiday party, according to the Post. He declined to name a suspect.
Thompson, 50, who became chief executive of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit in April 2021, was shot at around 6:45 a.m. ET (1145 GMT) Wednesday in what police described as a targeted attack by a masked assailant-in-waiting.
The killing happened just before the company’s annual investor conference at the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue.
The shooting sparked a massive manhunt for the gunman, who fled on foot wearing a hooded jacket, balaclava and gray backpack before getting on an electric bicycle and riding into Central Park, police said.
The Post quoted Adams as saying that police are not releasing the suspect’s name at this time to deny him any advantage.
“We don’t want to announce it now,” the mayor said. “If you do that, you’re actually tipping the person we’re looking for, and we don’t want to favor them at all. Let him continue to believe that he can hide behind a mask.”
“We found his face,” he continued, referring to photos and security camera video released after the murder. “We will find out who he is and bring him to justice.”
According to media reports, a backpack similar to the one worn by the suspect was found near a playground in Central Park. MSNBC said Saturday that when police searched the bag and its contents, they found a jacket and money from Monopoly, but no firearm.
Police divers were searching for the murder weapon in a pond in Central Park on Saturday, CNN reported, citing police sources. Reuters has not independently verified the account.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN on Friday that police had collected a “tremendous amount of evidence,” including fingerprints, DNA evidence and footage of the suspect’s movements around the city.
New York City police said Friday they believe the suspect has left New York, after a video surfaced showing him getting into a taxi that took him to a bus terminal.
“We have video of him entering the Port Authority bus terminal. We don’t have video of him exiting so we believe he may have gotten on the bus,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “Those buses are interstate buses. That’s why we believe he may have left New York.”
The NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the shooter’s capture, and the FBI added another $50,000 to that reward.
The circumstances of the attack suggest it was premeditated and planned, police said, with video showing the gunman ignoring other pedestrians as he appeared to wait for Thompson. The shooter’s motive is not yet known.
Security footage shows the shooter behind Thompson, raising his gun and shooting him in the back. Thompson, a married father of two, suffered gunshot wounds to the back and leg and was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after the attack.
UnitedHealth is the largest health insurer in the US, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for health care than people in any other country.
