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.
What happened?
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 gunshot 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.
What do we know about the shooter?
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.
Who was Brian Thompson?
Thompson was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the insurance wing of parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc.