(Reuters) – Authorities have identified the man suspected of killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson and are arresting him, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was quoted as saying by the New York Post on Saturday.
“The net is getting stronger,” Adams told reporters at a Police Athletic League vacation in Harlem, according to the Post. He refused to name the person accused of the crime.
Thompson, 50, who became CEO of insurer UnitedHealth in April 2021, was shot in the back around 6:45 a.m. ET (1145 GMT) on Wednesday in what police described as a targeted attack by an ambushed assassin.
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The murder happened shortly after the annual meeting of investors at the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue.
The shooting sparked a massive manhunt for the gunman, who fled on foot wearing a hooded jacket, balaclava and gray backpack before getting on an electric bike and riding into Central Park, police said.
Adams was quoted by the Post newspaper as saying that police are withholding the suspect’s name at this time in order to prevent him from entering.
“We don’t want to release ourselves now,” the mayor said. “If you do that, you are already giving advice to the person we are looking for and we don’t want to promote him. Let him keep believing that he can hide behind the mask.”
“We showed his face,” he continued, referring to security camera photos and video released after the killing. “We will reveal who he is and we will judge him.”
New York City police said Friday they believe the suspect has left New York City, after a video emerged showing him getting into a taxi that took him to a bus stop.
“We have video of him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal. We don’t have video of him exiting so we believe he may have boarded the bus,” New York Police Department Commissioner Joseph Kenny told CNN. “Those buses are interstate buses. That’s why we believe they may have come from New York City.”
The circumstances of the attack suggest it was premeditated and premeditated, police said, with video showing the gunman turning his back on other pedestrians and apparently waiting for Thompson. The shooter’s motive was not yet known.
Security video showed the shooter behind Thompson, raising his gun and shooting him in the back. Thompson, a married father of two, was shot in the back and leg and was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after.
UnitedHealth is the largest US health insurance company, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for health care than people in any other country.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Daniel Wallis)