Investigators have not yet publicly identified the gunman who ambushed the 50-year-old insurance executive early Wednesday.

Summary

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in a targeted attack outside a New York Hilton hotel, with investigators describing the killing as meticulously planned.

The gunman fled on foot, then by rental bike, and possibly left the city via bus. Shell casings at the scene had words like “deny” and “defend” inscribed, hinting at a motive linked to Thompson’s work.

Experts suggest the shooter may have military or weapons experience but left key clues, including surveillance footage and discarded items.

Police are analyzing evidence, including DNA, to identify the suspect.

  • Demdaru@lemmy.worldEnglish
    231·
    5 days ago

    Okay, honestly? Hear me out because as an European one thing stood out to me.

    Why didn’t NYPD catch him? Because he fled using… public communication transportation. It’s too out of this world for them to be able to track him down. No protocols. No nothing. Because nobody, ever, uses public communication in USA.

    Edit: And it seems I am the bigger joke for writing public communication when half-asleep. ._.

    • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 days ago

      Did he use public transit? I thought the first thing I heard is people thought he used a rental bike but it turned out it wasn’t one of those. But yeah even if he did I think basically what he did was ride from the scene of the crime into Central Park which has less CCTV and is a lot harder to track people in so it probably took longer for the police to find his trail from there.

      • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
        7·
        5 days ago

        Ditch the bike in the park, get changed (remove top layer, put in backpack), hop in to the waiting car on the other side of the park. Toss the backpack in a dumpster on your way out of town.

        You’re outta there before NYPD even knows it happened.

        • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
          4·
          5 days ago

          CBS is saying that they found the backpack buried in some rocks in Central Park.

          NYPD officers were in Central Park near West Drive on Friday, searching for anything with ties back to the gunman. Eventually, they discovered a backpack they believe belongs to the suspect, a high-ranking NYPD source told CBS News New York.

          Former NYPD detective Felipe Rodriguez says he thinks the suspect pre-planned his hiding spot.

          “It seems to have been buried in rocks and everything else. This was something that just wasn’t done in five minutes, and I am pretty sure that he was able to do this even before he committed the homicide,” Rodriguez said. “We actually have to look at the magnitude, and how big Central Park is. It’s really big, 256 acres at this point.”

          Saturday, police said the backpack contained a jacket, but not the murder weapon. The recovered items were sent to the crime lab for forensic tests, which could confirm if they are the suspect’s.

        • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
          1·
          5 days ago

          I did hear he actually most likely took a bus out of NYC as they had footage of him entering a bus station but not leaving it. It could be hard to figure out which bus he took although if he had to buy a ticket from a person there it might be easier.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      There’s a lot of people getting on and off a bus at any given time. They also probably didn’t know he used a bus until later. They probably used CCTV cameras to track where he went, but they’d have to do that individually after they found out what happened. He was probably well out of the city before they knew. There’s really nothing they could do except maybe lock the whole city down while they search, but that’s not going to happen.