FBI offers $50,000 for information in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson | Brian Thompson shoots

The FBI has announced it will offer $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the gunman who fatally shot the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York City, as efforts to identify and locate a suspect continue.

The FBI reward, which is in addition to a $10,000 reward offered by police, comes as investigators try to reconstruct the movements of the man suspected in the so-called “targeted” attack in which Brian Thompson was killed in Manhattan early Wednesday morning.

After reviewing surveillance video that shows him fleeing the crime scene on a bicycle before entering Central Park, police believe the suspect may have fled the city by bus. The video shows him walking and taking a taxi to an interstate bus station.

“We have reason to believe that he is no longer in New York City,” said New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Police officers used drones to search Central Park and found a backpack that was believed to have been thrown away by the suspected murderer as he fled. Despite the suspect’s apparent escape from the city, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that “we are on track to apprehend him and bring him to justice.”

Images of the suspected shooter during and after the shooting show that he was masked or wearing a hood. Police circulated an image of his face taken at a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side when a person believed to be the suspect lowered his face to speak to the receptionist.

However, the identity of the suspect is still unknown, as is the motive. However, the apparently targeted nature of the attack and the words “delay”, “denial” and possibly “deposition” written on the cartridge cases, as well as the bullets recovered at the scene of the shooting, suggest that it is related to the routine health insurance Industry refusal to withhold payments for medical services to many Americans.

Healthcare debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., with for-profit health insurers like UnitedHealthcare among the richest companies in the country. Thompson, who lived in Minnesota near the company’s headquarters, earned $10 million a year in his role as CEO.

The shooting caused deep shock in the health insurance industry. And UnitedHealthcare has since begun improving the safety of its employees. “Although our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the tremendous kindness and support in the hours since this terrible crime,” the company said in a statement.

Other insurers have taken similar precautions following the attack, with national health insurer Centene Corp turning its investor day into a virtual event. And Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care company with about 3,000 employees, said it is temporarily closing all six of its offices. Employees will work from home, which the company said was due to “an abundance of caution.”