By MICHAEL BALSAMO and MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — The gunman who killed the CEO of the most important U.S. well being insurer seemingly left New York Metropolis on a bus quickly after the brazen ambush that has shaken company America, police officers mentioned Friday.
Three days after the capturing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police nonetheless didn’t know the gunman’s identify or whereabouts or have a motive for the killing, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny informed reporters. Investigators had been whether or not the shooter might have been a disgruntled worker or consumer of the insurer, he mentioned.
Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday’s capturing confirmed him using a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that gives commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C, in accordance with Kenny.
Police have video of the person getting into the bus station however no video of him exiting, main them to consider he left town, Kenny mentioned. CNN first reported that the shooter might have escaped town by bus.
Investigators discovered a backpack in Central Park that was carried by the shooter, police mentioned Friday, following an enormous sweep to search out it in an enormous space with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and a densely wooded part known as “The Ramble.”
The gunman made certain to hide his identification with a masks throughout virtually all of his time within the metropolis, together with in the course of the assault and whereas he ate, but left a path of proof in view of the nation’s greatest metropolis and its community of safety cameras.
The gunman arrived in New York Metropolis on Nov. 24 and shot Thompson 10 days later, outdoors his firm’s annual investor convention at a resort simply blocks from Radio Metropolis Music Corridor and Rockefeller Middle.
The gunman obtained off a bus that originated in Atlanta and made a number of stops alongside the way in which, Kenny mentioned. Police haven’t decided the place he obtained on the bus.
Investigators consider the suspect used a faux identification card and paid money, Kenny mentioned, when he checked in on the hostel, which has a café together with shared and personal rooms and is blocks from Columbia College.
Investigators have examined a discarded water bottle and protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. Additionally they had been making an attempt to acquire extra info from a cellphone discovered alongside the gunman’s escape route.
Photographs of the suspected shooter that had been taken within the foyer of a hostel on Manhattan’s Higher West Aspect seem to from the one time he eliminated his masks, Kenny mentioned. The photographs, exhibiting a person smiling within the foyer of the HI New York Metropolis hostel. They’re amongst a group of images and video circulated for the reason that capturing — together with footage of the assault, in addition to pictures of the suspected gunman at a Starbucks beforehand.
“From every indication we have from witnesses, from the Starbucks, from the hostel, he kept his mask on at all times except for the one instance where we have him photographed with the mask off,” Kenny mentioned.
His roommates on the hostel additionally mentioned he didn’t converse to them, Kenny mentioned.
Safety video of the capturing exhibits the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing a number of pictures with a gun outfitted with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam whereas the chief fell to the sidewalk.
The phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” had been scrawled on the ammunition, one phrase on every of three bullets, Kenny mentioned. A regulation enforcement official beforehand informed The Related Press that the phrases scrawled on the ammunition had been “deny,” “defend” and “depose.” The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is often utilized by legal professionals and critics about insurers that delay funds, deny claims and defend their actions.
Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had been with Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for greater than three years.
The insurer’s dad or mum firm, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual assembly in New York for buyers. The corporate abruptly ended the convention after Thompson’s loss of life.
UnitedHealth Group mentioned it was targeted on supporting Thompson’s household, guaranteeing the security of workers and aiding investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring,” the corporate mentioned.
UnitedHealthcare offers protection for greater than 49 million Individuals. It manages medical health insurance protection for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid packages.
In October, UnitedHealthcare was named together with Humana and CVS in a Senate report detailing how its denial fee for prior authorizations for some Medicare Benefit sufferers has surged in recent times.
The capturing has rocked the medical health insurance trade specifically, inflicting corporations to reevaluate safety plans and delete images of executives from their web sites. A unique Minnesota-based well being care firm mentioned Friday it was briefly closing its places of work out of an abundance of warning, telling workers to make money working from home.
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Balsamo reported from Washington. Jake Offenhartz, Cedar Attanasio and Karen Matthews in New York, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this story.
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