Police in Pennsylvania are questioning a man on Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, NBC News reported.
The man was found with a gun that is similar to the one used to kill the 50-year-old Thompson by a masked gunman last Wednesday in New York City, according to NBC.
The unidentified man also was found in possession of a silencer and a fake New Jersey identification.
Police approached the man after receiving tips from customers at a McDonald’s restaurant who believed he looked suspicious.
New York police previously have said that a person of interest being sought for questioning in the case had stayed at a hostel in Manhattan before Thompson’s shooting after checking in with a fake New Jersey ID.
An image of the individual sought in connection to the investigation of the shooting death of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, is seen in an undated still image from surveillance video taken in a taxi in New York City, U.S., released on December 8, 2024.
NYPD News | Via Reuters
New York police are en route to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where the man is being questioned.
The development in the case came on the same day that Thompson’s funeral was set to take place in Minnesota.
It is not known if the man being questioned in Altoona is the same person who has appeared in surveillance footage of a person of interest in the killing previously released by the New York Police Department.
Thompson’s company, which is a division of UnitedHealth Group, is the largest private payer of health insurance benefits in the United States.
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare
Courtesy: UnitedHealth Group
The CEO was on his way into an investor day meeting for UHG at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning when a gunman shot him from behind.
The suspect then fled the area on a bike and pedaled into nearby Central Park.
A New York City Police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park near 64th Street and Central Park West, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in New York, while searching for a backpack police believe was dropped in the park by the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.
Ted Shaffrey | AP
The NYPD has said the suspect was spotted exiting the park on foot about 20 blocks north of the shooting scene, and that he then took a taxi north to the neighborhood of Washington Heights, where he was last seen entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal there.
Police have also said that person is believed to have arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 on a bus from Atlanta, and that he immediately went to the Hilton that same night and spent about a half hour walking around the streets nearby.
– Tom Winter of NBC News and Jonathan Dienst of WNBC contributed to this report
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