Words written on ammunition. A smiling surveillance photo. A discarded water bottle. A burner cell phone.
These are among the key pieces of evidence providing clues for police more than 24 hours into a hunt for the man who gunned down a healthcare executive Wednesday before seemingly disappearing into the city.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed on a busy Midtown Manhattan street in a targeted early morning attack.
Video from a nearby Starbucks shows the assailant buying a bottle of water and two energy bars roughly 30 minutes before the shooting, a senior police official said.
Investigators are developing clues from a burner phone and water bottle believed to have been dropped by the suspect when he fled the shooting scene.
A fingerprint was lifted from the water bottle, a law enforcement official tells CNN. The print, however, is smudged making it less conclusive, the official said.
The phone could yield fingerprints, DNA and –– if police technicians can unlock the phone –– other clues to the suspect’s identity, investigators said. Even a disposable burner phone might yield clues about communications and searches before the shooting. As of Thursday afternoon, police are still trying to access that phone, a law enforcement official said.
Authorities have been searching the area but have not found the gunman’s bike or weapon. A shell casing recovered from one of the bullets fired at Thompson had the word “depose” written on it, while “delay” was written on a live round that was ejected when the shooter appeared to be clearing a jam.
Police are exploring whether the words found indicate a motive, pointing to a popular phrase in the insurance industry: “delay, deny, defend.”
Surveillance video trail
Investigators who are also piecing together a timeline of the shooter’s movements told CNN that after the shooting, the assailant crossed the street, fled through an alleyway, and got on an electric bike on 55th Street before heading north on 6th Avenue toward Central Park, where he was last seen at 6:48 a.m.
Surveillance video appears to show the suspect leaving the 57th Street F train station before the shooting. CNN has confirmed the timestamp at 6:15 a.m.
An extensive video canvass led police to the area of a hostel on New York’s Upper West Side, a police official told CNN.
The suspected gunman used a fake New Jersey driver’s license when checking into the hostel, according to a law enforcement official. The identification was used to check in on November 30, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
One man appeared to wear a mask most of the time that he was staying at the hostel, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN. Hostel employees remember a man who wore a hooded jacket identical to the shooter’s, and who almost never lowered his mask or the hood.
The NYPD on Thursday released photos of a smiling man standing at the front desk of the hostel who police say is “wanted for questioning.” It’s unclear when the photos were taken.
Police are calling this man a person of interest until they can identify him and confirm or eliminate him as a possible suspect.
Officials are also looking into whether the getaway bike was prepositioned, because they think the suspect may have taken the subway from the Upper West Side to Midtown, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.
Investigators also have video of the suspect on the Upper West Side, carrying what appears to be an electric bicycle battery, the sources said.
Police believe that the shooter is a “light-skinned male” who was last seen wearing “a light brown or cream-colored jacket, a black face mask, black and white sneakers and a very distinctive gray backpack.”
Police deployed mobile field forces to conduct a grid search, looking through garbage cans, dumpsters and bushes in an extensive search for the missing backpack, a senior law enforcement official told CNN.
Police initiated the search after detectives reviewed security footage of the man they believe is the suspect no longer wearing the backpack after leaving the park through the West 77th street exit.
Investigators have not located the backpack, according to the official.
Authorities are offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
What video of the incident shows
The masked gunman was “lying in wait” for Thompson outside the Hilton Midtown shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, as Thompson made his way to the hotel to attend his company’s annual investor conference.
When Thompson approached the building, a dark-hooded figure with a gray backpack appeared several feet behind the executive and shot him in the back, surveillance video obtained by CNN shows.
Thompson then stumbled forward before turning to face the assailant and falling to the ground. The gunman calmly walked toward the CEO and continued to shoot –– appearing to clear a jam with the firearm momentarily before shooting again, video shows.
Thompson was pronounced dead less than half an hour after the incident.
