His victim lay dying on the sidewalk and witnesses were already calling the police, but the gunman appeared frozen after shooting health insurer boss Brian Thompson.
He walked calmly away from the scene and only started jogging as he crossed 54th Street, the road next to the side entrance of the Hilton Hotel where he ambushed Mr. Thompson.
He then walked through a passageway known as the ‘Ziegfeld Alleyway’, which was almost directly across from each other. This led him north to 55th Street, where he turned right and was soon on busy Sixth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan’s Midtown.
An Uber driver who witnessed the shooting took a photo of the hooded killer’s back as he fled the scene around 6:46 a.m. Wednesday.
As the manhunt for the killer of the CEO of United Healthcare, America’s largest health insurer, continues, investigators will focus on what he did after killing Mr. Thompson.
How did he manage to disappear in a busy city full of surveillance cameras as easily as he had first appeared, stealthily emerging from behind a parked car and, with the ease of a professional, shooting his target in the back as he made his way was? for his multibillion-dollar company’s annual investor conference?
Some of those CCTV cameras provided a few clues, and one determined that the killer had quickly hopped on an electric bicycle and headed north along Sixth Avenue toward Central Park.
Police reportedly no longer believe he was using a Citi Bike, similar to one of London’s so-called Boris Bikes. He would have had to rent it by providing credit card details and a phone number, revealing his identity, making it unlikely.
The gunman was last seen on West 85th Street 13 minutes after fatally shooting Brian Thompson
The unidentified man who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was spotted at a nearby Starbucks counter moments before he opened fire
Investigators have speculated that the shooter may have been carrying an e-bike battery to ensure the vehicle he used for his escape did not run out of power.
In any case, by the time he got on his bike he had given the police a potentially crucial clue by dropping a mobile phone in the alley – he had been seen on CCTV talking on the phone just 15 minutes before the murder was while he was walking to the Hilton.
Did he throw it away because he feared the police might track his movements, or did he accidentally drop it? It turns out to be a prepaid ‘burner phone’, which can be purchased with cash and which means that the identity of the buyer cannot simply be traced.
However, if police can hack the system, it could reveal who he spoke to next. And just like an empty water bottle recovered from a nearby trash bin, it is also tested for fingerprints.
We now know that the shooter arrived in the city on a Greyhound bus ten days before the shooting and had plenty of time to explore his options in the urban jungle of Manhattan.
So he may have noticed that New York’s most famous park is less covered by CCTV cameras than the surrounding streets. Perhaps the perfect place to remove compromising evidence, such as the weapon, and rearrange its appearance.
What is clear is that he acted quickly. Police say the suspect rode his bicycle into Central Park on Center Drive at 6:48 a.m. — just a few minutes after the shooting.
Center Drive is a historic carriage path that runs through the center of the southernmost portion of the 843-acre park. From there, the shooter could have taken any number of tree-lined paths that would have been largely empty.
Brian Thompson, 50, was scheduled to speak at an investor meeting at the Hilton Hotel on Wednesday morning when he was killed
On Wednesday afternoon, flags were lowered outside UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota
But given where and when he was later seen on CCTV, he likely turned left onto West Drive, part of the park’s main bypass and the most popular route for cyclists.
It would have resulted in him cycling against the flow of the one-way system and thus possibly being stopped by the police, but it is unlikely that there would have been too many of them in the park at that hour.
Central Park is densely wooded in many places, which would have given the killer the perfect opportunity to change clothes if he had one with him.
A CBS News report showed surveillance video showing someone police say could be the gunman who cycled along 85th Street at 6:59 a.m. — 26 blocks north of where he entered the park.
CBS said investigators believe he emerged from the park somewhere between 70th and 80th streets and onto Central Park West, the street that runs along the western edge of the park.
In the photo it looks like he has put on a cap and is no longer wearing the backpack. Police believe he threw it away in the park and could contain the murder weapon. He was then in the heart of the Upper West Side, the upscale neighborhood where he had reportedly been staying since arriving in New York.
After that final turn onto 85th Street, there have been no further sightings of the shooter thus far. His options from there are numerous. He could have used that last phone call before the murder to arrange for someone to pick him up in a car.
Getting from where he was last seen, next to the park, to the George Washington Bridge would require a drive of less than seven miles. Then he would have left New York and entered New Jersey – heading straight onto Interstate 95, which runs south to Miami, Florida, and north to the Canadian border, a nine-hour drive away.
The killer fled the scene on a bicycle and allegedly escaped to Central Park, prompting the NYPD to offer a $10,000 reward
Thompson was fatally shot in the chest at 6:45 a.m. outside the Sheraton Hotel in New York City
It certainly seems preferable to New York, where the intensive hunt for him has involved helicopters, drones and dogs.
For someone who police say had been in New York since he stepped off a bus leaving Atlanta, Georgia, on CCTV at 9 p.m. on November 24, he attracted very little attention.
It no doubt helped that he hid his face under a balaclava and hood – certainly not unusual in New York given the ongoing Covid scare and the current cold weather.
Most of the time, the shooter stayed at the HI New York City Hostel on the Upper West Side. He used a fake New Jersey driver’s license as identification and paid his bill in cash.
Guests share a dormitory with bunk beds and a communal kitchen. The shooter even wore a mask indoors and kept to himself, but not to the extent that he aroused suspicion.
However, during a crucial break for investigators, a flirty female receptionist at the front desk persuaded him to pull down his mask so she could see his “beautiful smile.” He complied and provided police with the best footage of him yet. The shooter checked out on November 29, only to check back in on November 30.
Police suspect he used a very unusual firearm: a 9mm ‘stealthy’ pistol with a built-in silencer called a BT Station Six 9, which is based on a World War II British spy rifle called the Welrod. Investigators are following up on reports that one was recently sold in Connecticut.
On the day of the shooting, he was first spotted on surveillance footage at 5 a.m. near the Frederick Douglass Housing Project on the Upper West Side.
Authorities have released surveillance photos of the alleged gunman they say fatally shot Brian Thompson
NYPD officers at the scene of the shooting near W. 54th St. and 6th Avenue. A witness said the gunman killed Thompson at close range before fleeing on a bicycle
Around 6:15 a.m., he was captured on camera emerging from a subway station in Midtown Manhattan, not far from the Hilton Hotel. Two minutes later, he was photographed at a Starbucks branch using cash to buy two bottles of water, a cup of coffee and two energy bars.
Experts say such a last-minute stop – where he appears not to be wearing gloves – indicates the shooter is not a professional hitman.
Police say they found unspecified “forensic evidence” at Starbucks and the items found there – most likely the paper cups and wrappers – were analyzed for DNA.
After speaking to someone on the phone at 6:30 a.m. while walking to the Hilton, the gunman took up position five minutes before his victim emerged from his hotel across the street.
The convention that Mr. Thompson was scheduled to address in the Hilton ballroom wouldn’t start for more than an hour. How the killer knew so precisely where his target would be, and when, is simply a mystery that will certainly not be solved until he is identified and captured.