Brian Thompson NYC capturing newest: New photographs present face of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s suspected killer

A senior law enforcement official told reporters outside the New York International Hostel on Thursday that the suspect recently stayed there and was photographed without a face mask.

According to CNN, the shooter stayed in a multi-person room with two other males at the hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam Avenue and was mostly masked during his stay but new images show a brief moment where he was unmasked and smiling.

New photos released by the NYPD on Thursday morning revealed the face of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s suspected killer.

Both photos show the unmasked suspect who appears to be wearing the face covering around his neck.

He is smiling in one of the photos.

The NYPD shared the photos and wrote: “Below are photos of a person of interest wanted for questioning regarding the Midtown Manhattan homicide on Dec. 4. This does not appear to be a random act of violence; all indications are that it was a premediated, targeted attack. The full investigative efforts of the NYPD are continuing.”

The gray backpack being carried by the gunman when Thompson was shot and killed appears to be one sold by Peak Design, a company that specializes in bags that sell for up to $330, according to the New York Times.

Images of the gunman carrying the backpack were shared by police following the shooting.

Some social media users pointed out that the bag is a luxury backpack that is well known among photographers.

At the press conference, Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives, did not identify the bag, but described it as “distinctive.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared the NYPD is “going to have someone apprehended”.

“The pieces of the puzzle… they are still coming together,” Adams said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday.

The mayor confirmed he was briefed by the New York City Police Department chief of detectives on Thursday morning.

Now, he believes the assailant that fatally shot Brian Thompson on Wednesday will end up in custody.

“We’re moving at a steady pace, and we’re going to have someone apprehended,” he said.

Adams said that, based on a preliminary review, the police believe it was “definitely” not a “random act of violence”.

“We believe this was clearly a targeted shooting,” he said. “In all of my years in law enforcement, I have never seen a silencer before. That was really something that was shocking to us all.”

Adams concluded: “We’re on the right path, and we believe we’re going to apprehend this person.”

Police are said to have found an image of the gunman without a mask, as authorities home in on finding United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer, according to a report.

While the assailant reportedly had his face covered most of the time in his hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, with the location first reported by CNN.

And the shooter was seemingly wearing a mask in images captured from surveillance cameras around Manhattan.

Now, police have captured one usable image where he isn’t wearing a mask in his hostel, a law enforcement officer told the outlet.

The gunman is said to have stayed in a multi-person room with two other men, the source said.

Brian Thompson and his wife, Paulette, had been living apart for years, according to a report.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal  who obtained property records, voter data and spoke to neighbors, the couple had been living a mile apart from each other in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Paulette Thompson said that her husband had recently received threats from angry customers over complaints she believed may have had to do with “a lack of coverage.”

“I don’t know details,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News. “I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

The security firm who had previously provided bodyguard services to Brian Thompson was shocked that the UnitedHealthcare CEO didn’t have protection in New York City, where he was shot dead on Wednesday, after the health insurer’s company was rocked by two protests this year.

“It was normal operation for that company that they would have their own private security team to take care of their corporate executives,” Philip Klein, owner of Klein Investigations and Consulting in Nederland, Texas, told the Wall Street Journal.

UnitedHealthcare headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, where Thompson, 50, was station had more than 100 demonstrators descend in April and July to protest an alleged “epidemic” of claims denials.

The New York City Police Department has appeared to up its search efforts as it attempts to close in on finding the suspect who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to death on Wednesday.

After last being seen cycling out of Central Park on West 85th Street just before 7 a.m., according to footage obtained by NBC News, he has since remained at large.

Police have deployed a swathe of investigators – uniformed and plain clothed – dogs, drones and helicopters in the hunt for the assailant, according to The Times.

Investigators were said to be using facial recognition technology to try to identify the suspect from surveillance images – after the suspect was sighted in a Starbucks near the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel.

It follows police searching a hostel as they continue to hone in on the identity of the suspect who fatally shot Thompson, according to a report.

Police are said to have searched a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, according to CNN.

Police are said to have searched a hostel as they continue to hone in on the identity of the suspect who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, according to a report.

Officers searched a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where they believe the suspect may have been staying, according to CNN.

It comes after police were said to be seeking a search warrant for an undisclosed location in New York City where they believe the killer may have been hiding, sources told ABC News on Thursday morning.

The killer was last seen cycling out of Central Park on West 85th Street just before 7 a.m. and has since remained at large, according to footage obtained by NBC News.

Thompson was shot dead at point blank range at about 6:46 a.m. on Wednesday outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan.