UnitedHealthcare CEO shot: Brian Thompson killed in Midtown, NYC as NYPD closes in on shooter’s ID

MIDTOWN (WABC) — New York City police appear to be closing in on the identity of the suspect wanted in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and believe the shooter arrived in New York last month on a bus from Atlanta, sources said to the police to ABC News.

The suspected gunman walked through the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and detectives have been looking to see if they can spot him on video, according to the sources.

A spokesperson for Greyhound said it is cooperating with the NYPD investigation, but said it “cannot provide further comment at this time.”

Law enforcement sources also told ABC News that the suspect checked into the HI New York City Hostel, located at 104th Street and Amsterdam on the Upper West Side, on November 30. It is believed he arrived in the city before that date and detectives are continuing their video recordings. get a more complete picture of his movements.

The new development comes after the NYPD released new photos of the suspect without a mask on Thursday, apparently from when he was staying at the hostel. A law enforcement source told Eyewitness News that the suspect’s unmasked smile came when he flirted with the receptionist checking him into the hostel and encouraged him to drop the mask so she could see his smile. The suspect obliged and pulled his mask down long enough for the surveillance camera to capture his face.

It represents an important image for investigators and police are confident someone will recognize him.

It appears the suspect shared a fourth-floor room with two other men and checked into the hostel with a New Jersey license that is not his, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Detectives ran the name and found it did not match any known photos of the suspect or other evidence collected so far, the sources said.

Separately, surveillance footage reviewed by police shows a person who appears to be the suspect exiting the subway before the shooting at the 57th Street station, just blocks from the shooting scene. The suspect was seen on surveillance footage around 5 Wednesday outside the hostel with what appeared to be an e-bike battery.

Police are working to determine if the suspect assumed the bike and took the subway to the scene of the shooting.

“Deny,” “defense” and “launch” were written on the live rounds and shell casings discovered at the scene of Wednesday morning’s shooting — which investigators interpret as a possible message from the suspect.

It furthers their work motive that the suspect harbored a grudge against the insurance company. They are reviewing any dispute or contested injunction filed against the company, as well as denying any threat against UnitedHealthcare’s CEO.

Thompson, 50, of Minnesota, was shot about 6:45 a.m. outside the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue between 53rd and 54th streets in what police say was a “rather targeted attack.”

The CEO was in New York City for an investor conference at the Hilton, and his schedule was widely known.

NYPD detectives tracking sales of the kind of gun used to kill the UnitedHealthcare executive arrived Thursday at a store in Connecticut that sold the same type of gun, according to law enforcement sources.

The police believe that the perpetrator used a B&T Station Six, known in the UK as a Welrod pistol.

The pistol does not have a silencer, but rather a long barrel that allows the 9mm to deliver a nearly silent shot.

It requires manually cycling ammunition from the magazine, which is consistent with what is seen on the video of the shooting. The weapon is not readily available, so investigators have run down all recent purchases.

The actual gun used in the shooting of Thompson has not been found, so this is one of the investigative leads authorities are following.

The shooter appears to have known which door Thompson was going in and was seen on video at least five minutes before the shooter loitering around the hotel. Thompson was approached from behind and shot multiple times at point blank range at the doorway on West 54th Street, including several rounds to the back and once to the right calf.

At one point the gun seemed to stop. When the suspect was cleaned up, he resumed shooting.

It is not clear if words were exchanged before the shooting.

The gunman is described as 6’1″ with a tall, thin build and was wearing a black jacket, black hat, black ski mask and black backpack. He ran through mid-block Ziegfeld Alleyway and eventually jumped on a bicycle and rode away into Central Park.

A new video released Thursday shows the alleged suspect cycling out of Central Park on West 85th Street after the shooting.

Investigators also found surveillance footage from a Starbucks a block north where the suspect visited a few minutes before the shooting, and a cell phone was found along the escape route.

While a suspect has not yet been identified, police believe they will find good forensic evidence from a water bottle and two power bar wrappers that were discarded at the same Starbucks where police also obtained the surveillance video of the suspect. They say the unused rounds and the cell phone, which they now have a search warrant to examine, will also help in their investigation.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information.

ABC News contributed to this report.

READ MORE: What we know about the gunman in the murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare CEO

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