Suspect in UnitedHealthCare CEO shooting used fake ID and traveled by bus to New York, sources say

Our live coverage has ended. Read the latest on the investigation here.

The UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing was well-planned, but the suspect gunman’s movements were sloppy, according to a retired FBI supervisory special agent and CNN law enforcement contributor.

Moore said he’s expecting a break in the case soon because there are now photos of the suspect’s face and someone has probably recognized him. The water bottle believed to have been dropped when he fled the shooting scene could be another clue, he said. If the man drank out of it, authorities could collect DNA from that bottle.

The words found on the live round and shell casing, along with the way the suspect has carried themselves and prepared for the shooting, are a “gold mine” for profilers to narrow down their search, Moore said. It could help them find out what kind of person they’re dealing with, what he’s likely to do and how he thinks – informing how they might find him, he said.

The suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson “tried to become a ghost” and may have fled to Central Park to quickly change his clothing, a retired NYPD sergeant said.

The suspect used a fake New Jersey driver’s license to check into an Upper West Side hostel and “every attempt that he made was to make sure that … we were not able to pick him up on camera,” Rodriguez said.

Video shows the suspect fleeing the scene on an e-bike into Central Park, which Rodrguez describes as a “beautiful place to change clothing” to evade law enforcement.

Photos of the suspect smiling while his mask was lowered in a flirtatious moment with a hostel clerk may not help authorities identify him if he’s never been arrested before, Rodriguez said.

Authorities are still searching for the gunman who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. As the search extends into a third day, more clues and details have emerged as police continue their investigation.

Police have released photos of surveillance footage showing a man smiling during a flirtatious moment with a female employee at a hostel on New York’s Upper West Side. The photo of the man, who police believe is a suspect in Thompson’s killing, provides a “significant clue” to investigators, according to John Miller, CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst.

Here’s what we know:

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Miller: Flirty moment yielded most significant clue yet to help find gunman

01:59 - Source: CNN

The NYPD released photos of surveillance footage on Thursday showing a man smiling who police believe is a suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, providing a “significant clue” to investigators, according to John Miller, CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst.

The man lowers “his mask and gives a big smile,” Miller said — a flirtatious moment between the man and a female employee at a hostel on New York’s Upper West Side.

A screengrab from a video shows what appears to be the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting, on W 55th street in New York, before the murder on December 4.

Video shows what appears to be the suspected gunman in the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing on West 55th street in New York City before the fatal shooting.

The suspect can be seen stopping by a pile of trash nearly 30 seconds into the video.

The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson traveled via Greyhound bus to New York before the shooting, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN.

That bus started its route in Atlanta, the sources said, adding that authorities do not know whether the suspect boarded in Atlanta or elsewhere.

A Greyhound spokesperson said the company is “fully cooperating with authorities on this active investigation.”

Police believe the gunman arrived in New York City on November 24 — 10 days before the shooting, a law enforcement official told CNN. The suspect was seen on surveillance camera getting off the bus in New York around 9 p.m. ET that day and was seen walking through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, according to a law enforcement source. The suspect then went to the hostel. After that, he appears to move around the city, the official said.

The suspect checked out of the hostel on November 29, the law enforcement official said. He checked back into the hostel on November 30, multiple law enforcement sources previously told CNN.

Law enforcement interviewed a female employee at the hostel who said, at one point, she asked the masked man to lower his mask while flirting with him — which is when the photos released by the New York Police Department today were captured, the official said.

The suspected gunman paid the hostel in cash, according to the official. He checked into the hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side using a fake New Jersey driver’s license, a law enforcement official previously told CNN.

Police still don’t know where he got the e-bike he used to flee the scene.

CNN’s Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.

CNN retraced the steps of the man suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.

Video shows the suspect stopping at Starbucks moments before the crime and fleeing the scene on an e-bike into Central Park. Police are still searching for the gunman.

The suspected gunman in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson used a fake New Jersey driver’s license when checking into the Upper West Side hostel, according to a law enforcement official.

Multiple law enforcement officials tell CNN that the ID was used to check in on November 30.

The New York Police Department launched a massive search of Central Park on Wednesday for the missing gray backpack worn by the shooter who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a senior law enforcement official tells CNN.

Police deployed mobile field forces to conduct a grid search, looking through garbage cans, dumpsters and bushes in search of the missing backpack.

But despite the extensive search, investigators have not located the backpack and do not know what was inside the backpack and if it contained the weapon.

The search was initiated after detectives reviewed video from a security camera of the man they believe is the suspect leaving the park through the West 77th Street exit, no longer wearing the backpack seen on the shooter before the shooting when he ordered a bottle of water at Starbucks, during the shooting, and afterwards as he rode into the park on an electric bike, the official said.

CNN has obtained footage of what appears to be the suspect nearby on West 85th street at around 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Investigators also reviewed footage from a hostel on the Upper West Side, where they believe the shooter may have been staying, in which the suspected gunman is wearing the same hooded jacket as seen in the other videos but is wearing a different backpack with a black strap over his shoulder.

Video shows what appears to be the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing on New York City’s West 85th Street at around 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Law enforcement tells CNN they have seen the video and think the video likely shows the gunman.

This video marks the latest in the day we have seen the suspect on Wednesday.

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Video shows what appears to be CEO shooting suspect on bike

00:13 - Source: CNN

Police are using video surveillance to piece together the alleged gunman’s movements before, during and after the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday.

Some key moments:

View the full visual timeline of the shooting.

Authorities are scouring the concrete jungle of New York City for traces of the masked gunman they say shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a bold and brazen attack more than 24 hours ago.

City police are tasked with tracing the assailant’s steps, combing through a mountain of surveillance video and examining evidence he may have left behind throughout the city and at the scene of the shooting in midtown Manhattan.

Here are some of the developments that may work in investigators’ favor:

But there are also factors working against police:

Police have been able to get one fingerprint off of the water bottle that the suspected gunman left behind at the site of the shooting — but it’s smudged, making it less conclusive, a law enforcement official told CNN.

Police are also still trying to get into a phone left behind, the official said.

Since authorities released the maskless photos of a “person of interest wanted for questioning,” police are getting many more tips that they have to sift through. It is currently not clear if any of those tips have produced helpful leads, according to the official.

New York City’s mayor told MSNBC on Thursday that investigators are “on the right pathway” in finding the person who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The manhunt for the suspected gunman is now stretching into its second day. Thompson was shot outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning.

Eric Adams told the network he was briefed by New York Police Department officials this morning and said they are finding more “pieces to the puzzle.”

Adams, a former NYPD captain, reiterated that the shooting was a “targeted shooting,” specifically pointing out the detail that the suspected shooter appeared to use a silencer on the gun.

“In all of my years of law enforcement, I have never seen a silencer before and so that was really something that was shocking to us all,” he said.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had an in-house security detail assigned to him during his trip to New York City, according to a source familiar with the company’s security, but the detail wasn’t with him when he was shot and killed in front of a hotel early Wednesday morning.

It’s common for top executives of major corporations to have personal security provided by their companies. Those measures are often significant expenses listed in corporate filings, though UnitedHealth Group — UnitedHealthcare’s corporate parent — doesn’t break out the cost in its own filings.

The need to protect the safety of top officers, and the cost of doing so has risen over the years — particularly for those high-profile executives whose businesses often generate controversy or criticism, such as health care. Most companies list the risk of the loss of their top executive, through death or other less dramatic departure, as a risk factor for investors to consider.

Multiple major healthcare providers began increasing personal protection around top executives Wednesday following the shooting, security industry sources told CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealth declined to provide details about security related to Thompson or why the security team wasn’t with him Wednesday morning. But a former senior security director at another major insurance company told CNN that it can often be difficult to get executives to accept security, even when there are threats.

Read more about the security measures.

An image released by the NYPD shows a "person of interest wanted for questioning."

The New York City Police Department released new photos showing what it says is a “person of interest wanted for questioning” over Wednesday’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The person is unmasked inside a hostel on the Upper West Side in New York City.

CNN has geolocated the two images to the hostel’s location. Police earlier searched the hostel where they believe the suspect may have been staying.

It was an extensive video canvass that led police to the area of the hostel, a police official tells CNN. There, employees remember a man wearing a hooded jacket identical to the suspected shooter’s, and who almost never lowered his mask or hood. Police are calling this man a person of interest until they can identify him and confirm or eliminate him as a possible suspect.

“All indications are that it was a premediated, targeted attack,” police reiterated in an X post.

An image released by the NYPD shows a "person of interest wanted for questioning."

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John Miller discusses new images of 'person of interest' wanted for questioning in CEO shooting

01:29 - Source: CNN

CNN’s John Miller contributed reporting to this post.

Law enforcement sources have revealed that police have found one usable image of the suspect who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Thursday.

Multiple law enforcement sources told CNN the shooter appeared to wear a mask most of the time that he was staying at the hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

But, they have so far captured just one usable image where he isn’t wearing a mask there.

The shooter stayed in a multi-person room with two other males, one law enforcement source said.

As New York City police continue to search for the suspect who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning, new information is coming to light.

Here’s what we know so far:

Police have searched a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where they believe the suspect may have been staying.

Further details of what the search turned up were not immediately clear.