Grinning suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s NYC execution unmasked

Police have released new photos of the suspected gunman who shot and killed a healthcare CEO outside a New York hotel on Wednesday.

The NYPD released new photos on Thursday of the suspected gunman who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel.

The surveillance images show the suspect’s face, which had previously been hidden, with him seen flashing a smile with a black mask hanging from his chin.

The suspect was wearing the same dark hoodie he wore when he is believed to have fired repeatedly at Mr Thompson, 50, on Wednesday morning as the victim walked up to the Hilton on Sixth Avenue.

The NYPD has released new photos of the gunman. Picture: DCPI

Another close up photo shows the suspect carrying the same backpack he was later spotted with.

The photos were taken from an Upper West Side youth hostel where police believe the suspect had been staying at before the shooting, law-enforcement sources said.

Footage just fifteen minutes before the shooting showed the gunman seemingly talking to someone over the phone as he made his way to the hotel on Sixth Avenue.

The photos were taken from an Upper West Side youth hostel. Picture: DCPI

Police also released pics of the suspect making a purchase at the Starbucks at West 56th Street and Sixth Avenue, located just minutes away from the hotel.

In those photos, the gunman was wearing a black face mask as he nonchalantly bought a bottle of water and two PowerBars, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Police have recovered the cellphone and one of the water bottles that he purchased at the Starbucks.

Investigators hope they can pull fingerprints from the unspent ammunition, as well as DNA from the water bottle and phone, sources said.

Police were still looking for the suspect after he was spotted riding away from the crime scene on Sixth Avenue and entering Central Park just before 7am on Wednesday.

The NYPD and Crimes Stoppers are offering a $US10,000 ($15,500) reward for information on the gunman leading to his arrest.

Surveillance footage outside the Midtown Hilton. Picture: NY Post

Message on bullets used to kill insurance CEO

It comes after police sources revealed the suspect may have left a message on the bullets he used to kill the executive.

The NYPD is investigating the possible message — which appears to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — engraved on live rounds and shell casings left behind by the masked assassin after he shot Mr Thompson several times at about 6.46am before fleeing, the sources said.

The words are strikingly similar to a 2010 book condemning the insurance business, in which Thompson is one of the most powerful leaders.

Delay, Deny, Defend — two of the three words seemingly left — is subtitled, “Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Picture: UnitedHealth Group

Police are looking at possible ties to the book, as well as more general references to the health industry, as a potential motive, sources told The Post.

The book’s author, Jay M. Feinman — a distinguished professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School — declined to comment on Thursday morning.

Cops had recovered three live 9-millimeter rounds and three discharged casings in front of the Hilton hotel where Mr Thompson, of Minnesota, was set to host an investors’ conference that morning, police officials said.

Sources said several of the pieces of evidence each contained one word, indicating the killer may have been trying to leave a message as investigators try to piece together a motive.

Thompson’s estranged wife, Paulette “Pauley” Thompson, 51, told NBC News hours after the murder that the CEO had been getting “some threats.”

“Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?” she said, suggesting it was tied to her husband’s job.

“I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

Police at the crime scene. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

The masked gunman used a silencer and appeared to be an experienced shooter based on surveillance footage obtained by The Post.

He was seen waiting outside the luxury hotel for his target — the CEO with a yearly salary of nearly $US9.9 million ($15 million) — before he calmly fired off multiple shots at close range, causing Mr Thompson to stumble and collapse.

The gun had jammed but the calculated and methodical killer was able to clear it — showing he was a skilled gunman — and continue firing as his victim helplessly tried to crawl away, according to sources and the footage.

He then ran into an alleyway and hopped on an e-bike, which he rode north along Sixth Ave into Central Park, where surveillance camera coverage is spotty, police said.

But the suspect may have made some major mistakes that could help investigators identify him.

Flags fly at half mast outside UnitedHealthcare. Picture: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images/AFP

He bought coffee, a water bottle and two PowerBars at a nearby Starbucks before the killing and tossed his bottle and coffee cup in a trash can — which cops dug out of the garbage and now have as evidence, according to sources.

Investigators also discovered a phone in an alleyway near the Hilton which they believe belongs to the killer, the sources said. Investigators have obtained a search warrant to comb through the contents of the phone.

The lot of evidence could also help investigators to determine a motive for the execution-style hit.

“Based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said at an earlier conference.

“But at this point, we do not know why. This does not appear to be a random act of violence.”

Mr Thompson led the country’s largest private health insurer, which has a controversial history of rejecting customers’ claims and is facing a Department of Justice antitrust investigation.

But he was well respected in his field and was a husband and dad of two sons in Minnesota.

The CEO was rushed to Mount Sinai West Hospital after he was shot and he was pronounced dead at 7.12am, police said.

A source confirmed to The Post that UnitedHealthcare informed investigators that Mr Thompson had been the recipient of threats — though the source noted it’s not uncommon for someone in his position at a health care company.

— with Larry Celona and Allie Griffin

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission