New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Friday that he believes that the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter will be brought “to justice” and that his city is safe, as the search for the suspect in the brazen attack enters its third day.
“There is a lot of new information that our detectives and law enforcement entities were able to find based on their good old-fashioned police work,” Adams said, adding that the matter is still under investigation.
On Wednesday morning, police said that a masked gunman approached CEO Brian Thompson from behind as he was nearing a Midtown Manhattan Hilton hotel for a conference before shooting him multiple times. The suspect then left the scene by foot and later by electric bike and was last seen near Central Park’s Center Drive, NYPD officials said at a news conference, the lastest one that was held about the incident.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, recently named by Adams to head the sprawling police department, told the press event that the shooting appeared to be a “brazen” and “targeted” attack against Thompson.
Two days after the murder, the shooter was still at large and the motive for the killing remained unknown. New York City police have said that there is evidence suggesting the ambush was a targeted attack.
The identity of the suspect has not been revealed. Officials have not revealed the identity of a “person of interest” sought in the case, of whom the NYPD posted photos to its social media accounts.
In the CNBC interview, Adams sought to downplay concerns that some business executives may have in the wake of Thompson’s murder, reiterating that New York City is the “safest big city” in the United States.
“We are going to ensure the safety” of the city due to the presence of NYPD officers, he said, adding that he won’t reveal more information about the case because he doesn’t want to “jeopardize” the investigation.
“We are on the right road to apprehending him,” he separately told Pix 11 TV on Friday morning.
After the shooting on Wednesday, officers found Thompson on the ground with wounds to his back and right calf, according to Joseph Kenny, NYPD chief of detectives. The CEO was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 7:12 a.m.
Kenny said the shooter wore a black face mask, black-and-white sneakers, and a distinctive gray backpack. He arrived outside the hotel about five minutes before Thompson did and then waited and ignored other pedestrians before he approached Thompson from behind.
After the assailant began to fire, his 9 mm pistol jammed, but he quickly fixed it and kept firing, Kenny said.
“From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” Kenny said.
The shooter ran into an alleyway near the hotel and later got on an e-bike that he took into Central Park. Police initially said the shooter rode into Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-share program, CitiBike.
But a spokesperson for the program’s operator, Lyft, said police officials informed the company on Wednesday afternoon that the bike was not from the CitiBike fleet. Kenny said police found a cellphone in the alleyway, but it was unclear if it belonged to the shooter.
Thompson had been the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the insurance subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc., one of the largest companies in the United States and considered the top health insurance provider in the country.
