What do we know about the suspect?published at 19:19 Greenwich Mean Time 5 December
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington
Image source, ReutersA manhunt is still underway for the suspect in the Manhattan slaying of Brian Thompson, but investigators have started piecing together clues that they hope could lead to his identification and arrest.
According to police – and CCTV footage – the suspect is a light-skinned man who was, at the time, wearing what NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny described as a “very distinctive” backpack.
He was also wearing dark hooded jacket, along with a black face mask.
He used a handgun with a silencer, and police say he appeared to be familiar with how to handle weapons.
Investigators believe the suspect was waiting for Thompson, suggesting he knew where Thompson was staying and when he would arrive at an investors conference for his company, UnitedHealth Group. Minutes before the shooting, the suspect was seen buying something from a nearby Starbucks.
We now know that before the shooting, the suspect was filmed by surveillance cameras near the Frederick Douglass Housing Project in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Police have searched a building in the area where they think he may have stayed the night before the shooting.
After shooting Thompson, the suspect fled by bicycle through Central Park. His current whereabouts, and motives, are unknown.