NEW YORK — The masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies outside a Manhattan hotel used ammunition emblazoned with the words "deny," "defend" and "depose," two law enforcement officials said Thursday.
The words were written in permanent marker, according to one of the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The message echoes the phrase "delay, deny, defend," which attorneys and insurance industry critics commonly use to describe tactics used by insurers: delaying payment, denying a claim and then defending their actions. Doctors and patients frequently criticize health insurers for complicating access to care.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company's annual investor conference at a Hilton hotel in Midtown. The reason behind the killing remained unknown, but investigators believe it was a targeted attack.
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With the gunman still at large, police collected key clues Thursday as they tried to identify the killer.
Investigators believe the suspect may have traveled to New York last month on a bus that originated in Atlanta, one law enforcement official said. Police and federal agents were collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and to determine whether he purchased the bus ticket to New York in late November, the official said.
This image shows a man wanted for questioning in connection to the investigation of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Police also released new photos Thursday of a person wanted for questioning.
The images, showing an unmasked man in the lobby of a Manhattan hostel, add to photos and video that circulated since the shooting — including footage of the attack itself, as well as still frames of the suspected gunman stopping at a Starbucks beforehand.
Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled. In a nearby trash can, they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper that they say the gunman purchased from a nearby Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The city's crime lab is examining those items for DNA and fingerprints.
Investigators were still trying to obtain additional information from the phone Thursday, the law enforcement official said.
Bullets lie on the sidewalk Wednesday outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in New York.
The killing and the shooter's movements were captured on some security cameras in that part of the city. The shooter fled on a bike and was last seen riding into Central Park.
The hunt for the shooter brought police to at least two hostels on Manhattan's Upper West Side on Thursday morning, based on a tip that the suspected shooter might have stayed at one of the residences, according to one of the law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.
The photos police released Thursday of a man wanted for questioning were taken in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel.
“We are fully cooperating with the NYPD and, as this is an active investigation, can not comment at this time,” hostel spokesperson Danielle Brumfitt said.
Investigators believe the suspect used a fake New Jersey identification card when he checked in at the hostel, said one of the officials who spoke with The AP.
Employees who work at the hostel told investigators they remembered a man who almost always wore a mask when interacting with them or passing by the front desk and wore a jacket that looked like the one worn by the man pictured in surveillance images released after the shooting, the official said.
Police received tips from the public, many of them unfounded.
"We're following up on every single tip that comes in," said Carlos Nieves, a police spokesperson. "That little piece of information could be the missing piece of the puzzle that ties everything together."
Judging from surveillance video and evidence collected, investigators believe the shooter had at least some prior firearms training and experience with guns and the weapon was equipped with a silencer, one law enforcement official told the AP.
This still image from surveillance video shows the suspect, left, sought in the the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, center, Wednesday outside a Manhattan hotel.
Security camera video showed the killer approach Thompson from behind and fire several shots, barely pausing to clear a gun jam while the health executive tumbled to the pavement. Cameras showed the gunman fleeing the block across a pedestrian plaza before getting on the bicycle.
Police issued several surveillance images of the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face, which wouldn't have attracted attention on a frigid day. Authorities also used drones, helicopters and dogs in an intensive search, but the killer's whereabouts remained unknown.
Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in suburban Minneapolis, was with UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
The insurer's Minnetonka, Minnesota-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting with investors in New York to update Wall Street on the company's direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson's death.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.
