22 December 2024

Getty Images A police car is parked at the Bethesda Fountain in Central ParkGetty Images

Police are searching Central Park in New York

Police are investigating after a New York City health care executive was shot to death on the ground in Georgia while hunting his fleeing killer.

Brian Thompson of UnitedHealthcare was shot multiple times last week downtown by a gunman who apparently fled and then took a bus out of town.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that officers had been sent to the southern state and to stations along the bus route.

The search entered its fifth day on Monday, although police have not released the name or motive of the suspect, who was captured several times on surveillance camera wearing a mask.

Much of the police activity has focused on New York's Central Park, which appears to have formed part of the gunman's escape route.

The lake was fished for a second day on Sunday, and a discarded backpack was found nearby containing a jacket and some bills from the Monopoly board game but no weapon, sources told CBS.

Police believe he entered the park on a bicycle moments after the shooting, then took a taxi after leaving the park on the Upper West Side.

Photos released over the weekend show the masked suspect in the back of a taxi heading uptown to the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Washington Heights.

He was not caught on any cameras leaving the station, so it is assumed he fled by bus.

This is the same way he arrived in the city, 10 days before the shooting, on a Greyhound bus from Atlanta.

He then entered a hostel where he momentarily revealed his face to the receptionist, giving police their clearest picture yet.

A Reuters photo from CCTV shows a man wearing a hoodie and a backpack slung over his right shoulderReuters

Photo of the suspect provided by the New York Police Department

Police have not said anything about why they believe he killed Brian Thompson, 50, a father of two.

One theory is that it was an attack on the health insurance system.

Bullet casings were found at the scene with the words “Impeach,” “Reject” and “Delay” written on them.

This reflects the title of a book that criticizes the ways in which insurance companies avoid paying claims.

Thompson's death sparked an outcry on social media from people who shared their stories about insurance companies denying health care.

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