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NEW YORK (AP) — The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest US health insurer made sure he wore a mask during the shooting, but still left a trail of evidence in light of the country’s largest city and its network of security cameras that have helped authorities track his movements and his identity to map.
A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan, providing more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare. CEO Brian Thompson.
The whereabouts of the shooter and identity remained unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence clearly indicates it was a targeted attack.
Investigators believe the suspect may have traveled to New York last month on a bus that originated in Atlanta, said the law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Once he arrived in New York, he appeared to always pay with cash at establishments where he was captured on camera, the official said.
Investigators tested a discarded water bottle and a protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. They also tried to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza where the gunman fled after shooting Thompson outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.
The gunman then got on a bicycle and rode through an area dotted with security cameras. He was last seen disappearing at the southern tip of Central Park, near the famed Plaza Hotel, after crossing a street often bustling with joggers, horse-drawn carriages and taxis.
The police have released photos of a person wanted for questioning in connection with the murder that took place in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The footage, which shows an unmasked man smiling in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel, adds to the collection of photos and video footage that has circulated since the shooting – including footage of the attack itself, as well as footage of the suspected shooter stopping at a Starbucks beforehand.
Surveillance footage of the shooting shows the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that obscured most of his face — a look that would not have attracted attention on a cold morning.
Investigators learned the man lowered his mask at the hostel’s front desk because he was flirting with the woman checking him in, the law enforcement official told the AP, leading to a photo of his face. The woman told investigators that during that encounter she asked to see his smile and he pulled down his mask, the official said.
Investigators believe the suspect used a fake New Jersey identification card, the official said, as he checked into the hostel, which has a cafe and shared and private rooms and is just blocks from Columbia University.
Employees who work at the hostel told investigators they remembered a man who almost always wore a mask when interacting with them or walking past the front desk. The person was wearing a jacket similar to the one the man was seen wearing in surveillance footage, the official said.
Investigators believe the shooter had at least some firearms training and experience with firearms, the official said.
Surveillance video shows the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing several shots from a pistol equipped with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam as the director falls to the sidewalk.
The words “deny,” “defend” and “impeach” were scrawled on the ammunition, two law enforcement officials told the AP on Thursday. The messages echo the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” often used by attorneys and critics about insurers delaying payments, denying claims and defending their actions.
Thompson, the father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had worked at Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
The insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., held its annual meeting in New York for investors. The company abruptly ended the conference after Thompson’s death.
UnitedHealth Group said it was focused on supporting Thompson’s family, ensuring employee safety and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we are touched by the tremendous outpouring,” the company said.
UnitedHealthcare provides coverage to more than 49 million Americans. It administers employer health insurance and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.
In October, UnitedHealthcare, along with Humana and CVS, was named in a Senate report detailing how the prior authorization denial rate for some Medicare Advantage patients has soared in recent years.
The shooting has particularly shocked corporate America and the health insurance industry, causing companies to reassess their security plans and remove photos of executives from their websites. Another Minnesota-based health care company said Friday it was temporarily closing its offices out of an abundance of caution and telling employees to work from home.
Balsamo reported from Washington. Jake Offenhartz and Karen Matthews in New York, John Seewar in Toledo, Ohio, and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this story.
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