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Investigators believe the person who is UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside Midtown Manhattan hotel earlier this week “could be a disgruntled employee or a disgruntled customer,” according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“This is not ‘Blue Bloods,'” Kenny said at a news conference Friday, referring to the popular TV show starring Tom Selleck. “We’re not going to solve this in 60 minutes. We painstakingly go through every bit of evidence we can come across.”
Kenny said three words carved into bullets and casings found at the crime scene—“putting away,” “rejecting,” and “throwing away”—suggests a possible motive for the shooter. They appear to be referring to a 2010 book by Rutgers law professor Jay Feinman. Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. (Feinman declined to comment when contacted The Independent.)
“The network is closing in” on the as-yet-unidentified gunman, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former NYPD captain, said Saturday.
However, police officers have so far been unable to locate or identify the suspect whose distinctive gray backpack was found Friday night along the killer’s escape route through Central Park, a full three days after Thompson was killed.
Police have so far collected a “tremendous amount” of clues, including fingerprints, DNA and video footage of the suspect’s movements from surveillance cameras installed across the city, NYPD Commissioner said Jessica Tisch told CNN.
Police believe that the suspect may have killed Thompson with a vet gun, a nearly silent nine-millimeter firearm used by farmers and ranchers to kill livestock, Kenny says.
“It’s a weapon commonly used on farms and ranches. If the animal has to go down, the animal can be shot without making a loud noise,” Kenny said.
At the same time, the brazen killing of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was celebrated by many Americans who accuse the health insurance industry, and UnitedHealthcare in particular, of putting profits over people. There are more singer-songwriters published murder ballads that lionize the archer while continuing to evade capture.
“I want to sympathize with Brian Thompson’s family – and I’m thinking about it,” one said The Independent.
“And then I also think about the thousands of people who have lost their loved ones, or who are up to their necks in medical debt. And I think people understand at a fundamental level that no one should be killed because they are poor. It’s a very callous reaction, but it’s justified in many ways.”
The the suspect arrived in New York on a Greyhound bus originally from Atlanta, police said, but they don’t know exactly where he boarded. After shooting Thompson, the masked gunman then fled on an electric bicycle, rode through Central Park to the Upper West Side, then called a cab to take him to the George Washington Bridge bus stop in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan, police said. Since the suspect was not seen leaving the bus station, investigators believe that he also left the city by bus.
NYPD officials said they are now working to rule out a tip that the suspect left New York by plane. Customs and Border Patrol agents on both sides of the Mexican and Canadian borders have also been advised to be on the lookout for the suspect in case he tries to leave the country, a law enforcement source told CNN.
The NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s arrest and provided numerous tips, authorities said. The Atlanta Police Department is now assisting in the investigation, as is the FBI, which is offering its own $50,000 reward.