NEW YORK — The police commissioner of New York announced Monday that they had apprehended a 26-year-old man who was carrying a gun similar to the one used to murder the CEO of the biggest health insurer in the United States.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the man was arrested after police received an information that he had been seen at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
According to Tisch, they also found items, including a mask that matched the one our sought person had on. A fake New Jersey ID that matched the one our suspect used to check into his hostel in New York City before to the shooting incident was also found, Tisch said.
As he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was conducting its annual investor conference, UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday in what authorities described as a blatant, deliberate attack.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the shooter seemed to be waiting for a few minutes before coming up behind the executive and starting to fire. According to the authorities, he used a 9 mm handgun that looked like the weapons farmers use to kill animals quietly.
In the days following the shooting, authorities released a number of images and videos, including footage of the attack and pictures of the suspect at a Starbucks before it happened, in an effort to rally the public.
According to authorities, the guy smiled after taking off his mask in pictures shot in the foyer of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
According to investigators, the shooter might have been an unhappy client or employee of the insurance company.
The phrases “delay, deny, and depose” were found in ammunition discovered close to Thompson’s body, echoing a slogan used by opponents of the insurance business.
Despite wearing a mask throughout the shooting, the gunman left behind a trail of evidence, including a backpack he abandoned in Central Park, a smartphone discovered in a public plaza, and the wrapper for a protein bar and water bottle that police claim he purchased at Starbucks just before the assault.
As the dragnet for Thompson’s murders continued into a sixth day, dogs and divers returned to Central Park in New York on Monday.
Since the shooting on Wednesday, detectives have been scouring the park and, for the past three days, at least one of its ponds.
The rucksack that the murderer allegedly threw away as he ran from the crime scene to an uptown bus station—where they think he boarded a bus to leave the city—was discovered by police on Friday.
Using security footage to trace the gunman’s movements, authorities said the shooter escaped into Central Park on a bicycle, came out of the park without his backpack, and then abandoned the bike.
After walking a few yards, he got into a taxi and arrived at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is close to Manhattan’s northern edge and provides Greyhound travel to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington in addition to commuter service to New Jersey, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
In addition to the NYPD’s reward of up to $10,000, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information that results in an arrest and conviction. The culprit, according to the police, acted alone.
Two further images of the suspect, which seemed to be taken from a camera installed inside a taxi, were made public by police late Saturday. In the first, he is seen outside the car, and in the second, he is seen peering through the partition that separates the front of the cab from the back seat. In both, a blue mask covers part of his face.
There is an unusual contrast between joggers, tourists, and an active crime scene as a result of the NYPD’s efforts to minimize disturbance to park users throughout the search.
Divers exploring a pond now have a place to change and enter the water after a small piece of the park was blocked off with blue and white police tape on Monday. with between walking paths, K-9 units sniffed plants covered with leaves.
A group of roughly thirty French-speaking visitors once followed a guide down a route, but the police tape prevented them from continuing. Many of them pulled out their phones to take a picture of the divers before they turned around.
–The Associated Press/CEDAR ATTANASIO and MICHAEL R. SISAK
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