Video appears to show UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer walking toward hotel before shooting

Surveillance videos obtained by Fox News Digital from a deli near where the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down on Wednesday morning appear to show his killer walking toward the hotel where he was shot that morning. 

The videos show a person with the same build and wearing the same clothing as the suspect walking down 55th Street at 6:19 a.m. toward the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson was shot

The surveillance video was taken at the Stage Star Deli less than an hour before Thompson was shot just before 7 a.m. 

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Video of suspect walking toward hotel

The surveillance videos show the suspect dressed in black with a gray backpack walking down 55th between 6th and 7th avenues. In one of the videos, the suspect is seen briefly stopping in front of a pile of trash and bending down before moving on. 

The suspect also used a fake ID to check into a New York City hostel before the brazen execution-style killing, police sources told Fox News.

Sources say the suspect used the fake ID and paid in cash.

Photo of Brian Thompson was was the Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare Unit until he was shot in New York City in December 2024

Police sources told Fox News the suspect dropped a burner phone in an alley after the shooting. Police are looking into data that was on the phone, as well as fingerprints that were left on the device, sources say.

Police are also looking into a water bottle that was left at a Starbucks near the scene of the murder. Police sources say that DNA from the bottle is being used to build a suspect profile. The suspect is said to have paid in cash at the Starbucks.

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Person of interest

Former NYPD inspector and Fox News Contributor Paul Mauro said the type of weapon used by the gunman could work to police’s advantage, and addressed rumors the suspect may have worked as a hitman.

“The speculation is that it’s a hit man, it’s a professional killer and all this sort of stuff…I would just hesitate on that and tell people to just be mindful of the fact that professional hitmen primarily exist in the movies. They don’t really exist,” Mauro told Fox News Digital. Mauro says everything we know at this point is just speculation.

Person of interest

In separate video obtained by Fox News Digital, Thompson is seen walking down a sidewalk outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning when a masked man guns him down before fleeing the scene.

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Fox News Digital’s Bryan Preston, Lorraine Taylor and Karlo Pastrovic contributed to this report.