The Federal Bureau of Investigation offers a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Thompson, 50, was killed in a dawn ambush on Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, blocks from tourist sites such as Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of of Modern Art.
The murder, and the movements of the shooter in the minutes before and after, were captured on some of the multitudes of security cameras present in that part of the city.
A video showed him approaching Thompson from behind, leveling his gun and firing several shots, barely pausing to clear a brief gun jam as the dying healthcare executive slumped to the pavement.
Other security cameras captured the initial stages of the gunman’s escape. He was seen fleeing the block through a pedestrian plaza, then escaping on a bicycle into Central Park, where he disappeared.
Police used drones, helicopters and dogs in an intense search, but the killer’s whereabouts were unknown late into the night.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while investigators had not yet established a motive, the shooting was not a random act of violence.
“A lot of people passed on the suspect, but he seemed to be waiting for his target,” Tisch said at a news conference Wednesday.
“From watching the video, it appears that he is proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the errors quite quickly,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny .
Police released several surveillance images of the man, who was wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that hid most of his face and would not have attracted attention on a cold winter’s day.
Some of the photos were taken at a Starbucks coffee shop shortly before the shooting.
The police department initially offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. But the reward was increased to $50,000.
Investigators recovered several 9mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cell phone from the alley where the shooter fled.
They were also searching Thompson’s hotel room, interviewing his UnitedHealthcare colleagues and checking his social media, Kenny said.
Police initially said the shooter entered Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-sharing program, CitiBike.
A spokesman for the program’s operator, Lyft, said law enforcement officials informed the company late Wednesday that the bike was not from CitiBike’s fleet.
Healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group held its annual meeting with investors to update Wall Street on the company’s direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson’s death.
Thompson, a father of two, had been with the company since 2004 and was managing director for more than three years.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the US and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.