Authorities have the name of the suspect who assassinated United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and are closing in, Mayor Adams said Saturday.
“The net is tightening,” the mayor told reporters at a Police Athletic League holiday party in Harlem.
The mayor spoke as the manhunt for Thompson’s killer entered its fourth day.
“We don’t want to release that now,” the mayor said when asked if police have the killer’s name. “If you do, you are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all. Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We’re going to reveal who he is and we’re going to bring him to justice.”
The mayor also commended the “tri-state law enforcement partnership” for the ongoing investigation.
“And the manner in which they were able to follow his footsteps to recover evidence – some of it is known, some of it is unknown – but the net is tightening and we’re going to bring this person to justice,“ Adams said.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down Wednesday on a sidewalk as he approached an investor event in Manhattan without any security detail.
The assassin ran after the caught-on-camera killing and then jumped on a bike through Central Park before disappearing, officials said.
The motive wasn’t immediately known but investigators found bullets with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on them at the scene outside the hotel.
The killer was caught on surveillance video carrying a backpack before he went into the park — and then coming out of the park without it.
“Tons” of cops performed a grid search on the sprawling park and eventually found the bag.
Since the killing, police have released surveillance of the suspect flashing a killer smile at a clerk at an Upper West Side youth hostel.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- The methodical killer used a firearm with a silencer outside the Hilton hotel along Sixth Avenue.
- The gunman fired at Thompson multiple times, striking his back and right calf before fleeing on foot.
- The NYPD released a new photo of the hooded suspect standing in front of the counter at the Starbucks at West 56th Street and 6th Avenue, just minutes from the Hilton hotel where he gunned down Thompson, 50.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had been getting threats before he was killed.
- The NYPD is investigating a 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.
Follow along with The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding Brian Thompson’s murder.
It’s not immediately clear how police identified him, but they were poring through hundreds of tips from the public, officials said.
“Some of these guys have not gone home because we’re going to bring this person to justice,” Adams said of investigators. “We want to make sure this person is removed off the streets of America not only off the streets of New York.”