Image source, EPA

Brian Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurer in the US.

He first joined the company in 2004 as director of corporate development and rose through the ranks to become the head of the company in April 2021.

He earned $10.2m (£8m) working for the company last year, up from $9.8m in 2022 and $9.6m in 2021.

Thompson graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting.

Before joining UnitedHealthcare, Thompson worked at PwC.

The 50-year-old was married to Paulette Thompson, had two sons and lived in Maple Grove, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

• Read more about Thompson's background, including allegations of insider trading

More now on the latest in the investigation.

According to the BBC's US partner, CBS News, police believe a B&T Station SIX gun was used to carry out the shooting.

The firearm is a modern version of the British Welrod spy pistol used during World War Two. The manufacturer promotes its "non-descript appearance, whisper-quiet sound signature and unique rotating bolt operation".

Investigators have been visiting gun dealers in Connecticut looking for the place where it was purchased. It's unclear why the state has become a focus.

We previously reported that a silencer was used in the shooting. Police also say the gunman appeared to be familiar with weapons handling.

Image source, NYPD

BBC Verify's Ros Atkins has been looking at the gunman's known movements and what we know about how the shooting unfolded.

Watchas he pieces together the timeline below:

Image source, NYPD

As we reported earlier, New York police have released new photos of a person wanted for questioning in connection with the fatal shooting of health insurance boss Brian Thompson.

The images were taken at a hostel on the Upper West Side, where the suspect had been staying.

According to US media, police were able to find an image of the suspect without his face mask because he was flirting with the woman who checked him into the hostel.

The receptionist asked to see his smile, and the suspect obliged, pulling down his mask, which allowed a CCTV camera to capture his face, ABC reports, citing police sources.

As CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller puts it: “That little flirtation between the two of them, in some good-humoured way, actually yielded what is so far the most significant clue to identifying him.”

Some context: Investigators had initially only released grainy images of the suspect with his face partly covered by a mask.

As we've been reporting, New York police are still on the hunt for the gunman who shot dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on Wednesday morning.

In addition to the fresh details shared in our last post, it has also been reported that the suspect used a fake ID to check into the Hostelling International hostel on the Upper West Side.

Police believe the name on the ID is fake and does not belong to anyone else, the BBC's US partner, CBS News, reports.

Citing a law enforcement official, the New York Times writes that the suspect arrived in the city on 24 November and checked into the hostel.

He then checked out on 29 November before checking back in the next day, it reports.

Reporting overnight shed light on some of the suspect's movements in the days before the shooting, as investigators continue to piece together the timeline of events.

A person briefed on the investigation tells the BBC's US partner, CBS News, that the suspect took a Greyhound bus on 24 November that left from Atlanta, Georgia, and went to New York City.

It is not clear whether the suspect boarded the bus in Atlanta or at another point along the route.

The journey from Atlanta to New York City is almost 900 miles (1448km) long.

Image source, NYPD

Good morning. It's just turned 06:30 in New York, and 11:30 here in our London newsroom.

You join us as the large-scale search for the gunman who shot dead insurance boss Brian Thompson in New York City on Wednesday enters its third day.

New details of the suspect's movements emerged overnight, which we'll walk you through over the course of the next few posts.

Stay with us.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, NYPD

US authorities are still on the hunt for the gunman who shot dead healthcare executive Brian Thompson, 50, on Wednesday morning in New York City.

Here's what we know so far:

• The masked gunman arrived, on foot, outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan about 06:39 EST (11:39 GMT) on Wednesday
• About five minutes later, Thompson arrived and the gunman shot him twice - in the back and leg - using a silencer, before fleeing on foot
• Minutes later, CCTV footage later captured the gunman riding an e-bike through Central Park
• The police investigation is "moving at a steady pace" and will soon "have someone apprehended", the mayor of New York City said
• Police initially released images of a man wearing dark clothing taken from a Starbucks CCTV camera just minutes before the attack - they also searched a building in upper west Manhattan
• On Thursday police released two new photos showing a "person of interest", wearing dark clothing but no face mask
• Three shell casings found at the scene of the crime had the words "deny", "defend" and "depose" written meticulously on them with a marker pen

Police are yet to identify a motive but the wife of Thompson told US media that there had been "some threats" against her husband.

We're pausing our live coverage for now but will be back if there are any major developments in the case.

You can read about Brian Thompson, head of the largest private insurer in the US, and read more on the CEO's killing in New York.

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

Image source, NYPD

We've reported that New York police hope to find the person pictured in grainy Starbucks CCTV images using special computer software.

Facial recognition technology is used by law enforcement in many cities in the US - and it can be incredibly useful to police.

Last year I was given access to one of the systems the police use - by a company called Clearview.

Before I was given access my colleague took a series of pictures of me on the street - from different angles and different levels of quality.

Some were pixilated and of bad quality. What surprised me is the system found me from the pictures. It’s powerful stuff.

That’s not to say it’s right all the time - and it raises a series of privacy questions.

The police often describe it as a "tip". The system throws up names the police can then cross-reference to see if they are potential suspects.

As I reported last year Clearview has been used more than a million times by US law enforcement.

Several detectives told me they viewed this technology as one of the biggest breakthroughs in crime solving in recent times. If you have your face uncovered on CCTV there is very chance the tech could find you.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

A security expert who once provided bodyguards for Brian Thompson says he’s astonished that the health care executive wasn’t accompanied by security when venturing out of his New York City hotel.

“There’s a lot of anger in the United States of America right now,” said Philip Klein, who runs the Texas-based Klein Investigations.

He said that there is an increasing number of threats being directed at companies in the oil, finance and food and groceries industries – areas where higher prices has translated into consumer anger.

Klein said his company first provided security for Thompson in the early 2000s, when he made a speech in Dallas at the invitation of an oil company.

“These companies need to wake up to realise that their executives could be hunted down anywhere in the United States,” he told the BBC by phone. “They could be at a baseball game, their child’s soccer game or wherever.”

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington

We still don't have a motive in the killing of Brian Thompson in Manhattan - but his death has starkly highlighted the issue of personal executive protection for top CEOs.

Each year, top US companies spend millions of dollars on personal security to their highest-level executives, often disclosing them in their corporate filings.

Warner Bros. filings, for example, show that $705,000 was spent to protect CEO David Zaslav at his residence and while traveling, as well as another $768,000 for his use of a private aircraft.

Meta, for its part, spent more than $30.8m on security for senior executives and directors last year, including $23.4m for Mark Zuckerberg alone.

As CEO of UnitedHealthCare, however, Thompson was moving in New York without any protective detail, despite reports that he and other company executives had faced threats in the past.

His death has sparked new calls for more to be done to protect executives in the healthcare industry, which has faced rising threats amid the Covid-19 pandemic and disappointment with insurance coverage.

Image source, Getty Images

Brian Thompson, the businessman shot on Wednesday in Manhattan, was CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Here's a look at America’s largest health insurance firm.

It is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, a sprawling operation that runs doctor groups, hospice networks and surgical centres, manages prescription drug benefits programmes, and works closely with government health insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid.

UnitedHealthcare said its revenues in the third quarter of this year (ie July - September) were $74.9bn (£58.7bn).

It has 29.7 million domestic customers, according to results published in October.

Accusations that it has allegedly refused to pay for valid medical care have in some US states led to legal action and settlements. Regulators have also sued over the firm’s proposed acquisitions, alleging its grip on the industry is too great.

The controversies have not put much of a dent in its business. Ahead of its investor day, the firm was forecasting double digit revenue growth and profits of roughly 10% next year.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, the words “deny” “defend” and “depose” written on shell casings found at the scene of the crime have fuelled speculation about the motive of the killer.

Those words resemble – but are not exactly the same as – the title of a book called Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.

The book, published in 2010, was written by Jay Feinman, a legal scholar at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It's billed as an expose of the insurance industry and a how-to guide for Americans on how to navigate the system.

More broadly those three terms are used by critics to describe tactics used by insurance companies: delaying decisions, denying claims and defending those refusals.

Professor Feinman declined to comment when we contacted him today.

The map below shows where the suspect travelled after shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson before an investor conference.

According to police, the suspect shot Thompson just outside of the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan at 06:46 EST.

After that, he ran on foot through a nearby alley to grab an e-bike, police say, before traveling several blocks north to Central Park, where he was last spotted riding on the bike just two minutes later.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Reuters

A manhunt is still underway for the suspect in the Manhattan slaying of Brian Thompson, but investigators have started piecing together clues that they hope could lead to his identification and arrest.

According to police - and CCTV footage - the suspect is a light-skinned man who was, at the time, wearing what NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny described as a "very distinctive" backpack.

He was also wearing dark hooded jacket, along with a black face mask.

He used a handgun with a silencer, and police say he appeared to be familiar with how to handle weapons.

Investigators believe the suspect was waiting for Thompson, suggesting he knew where Thompson was staying and when he would arrive at an investors conference for his company, UnitedHealth Group. Minutes before the shooting, the suspect was seen buying something from a nearby Starbucks.

We now know that before the shooting, the suspect was filmed by surveillance cameras near the Frederick Douglass Housing Project in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Police have searched a building in the area where they think he may have stayed the night before the shooting.

After shooting Thompson, the suspect fled by bicycle through Central Park. His current whereabouts, and motives, are unknown.

Image source, Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says the NYPD's investigation into Brian Thompson's murder is "moving at a steady pace" and will soon "have someone apprehended".

Speaking to MSNBC's Morning Joe show, Adams said the investigation is "on the right pathway".

"We don't want to do anything that's going to not only impede the investigation, but hurt the prosecution of the person involved," he said.

Adams, who served as a police officer in the city for decades, said he was surprised by the suspect's use of a silencer.

"I have never seen a silencer before," he said. "That was really something shocking to us all."

Additionally, Adams sought to reassure New Yorkers and visitors that the high-profile killing is not reflective of the security situation in the city.

"This is the safest big city in America," he said.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Chicago

The killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has ignited a fraught conversation about medical insurance in the US.

We don't yet know the motive behind the killing - but after police said it was a targeted attack, many leapt to the assumption that it may have been driven by anger at insurers.

Police found words written on bullet casings recovered from the crime scene that they believe may refer to terms used by critics of the industry.

Some online trolls posted hate-filled comments on social media about the father-of-two's death. Other social media users criticised the industry in general, and some shared a chart purporting to show the percentage of insurance claims that UnitedHealthcare declines to pay.

It can be hard to adequately explain to those outside the US just how complicated the American health system is - multiple layers of bureaucracy and paperwork, all centred around large for-profit insurance and healthcare companies.

It is not uncommon for some US patients to face bankruptcy as they struggle to pay hospital bills.

The hostility online seemed to bridge the usual US political divide - coming from avowed socialists to right-wing activists suspicious of corporate power, and others sharing personal stories of their interactions with insurance companies, saying their claims for health treatments were denied.

As police scour evidence and footage for clues on the identity of the gunman, let's take a closer look at the timeline of events on Wednesday morning in New York that led to the death of healthcare executive Brian Thompson.

• At 06:39 local time (11:39 GMT), police say the gunman arrived at the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on foot
• At 06:44 (11:44 GMT), Thompson walks from his hotel across the street to the Hilton to address investors
• By 06:46 (11:46 GMT), police say the gunman had shot Thompson twice from behind and ran towards a bike on 55th Street, which he rode off toward Central Park
• At 06:48 (11:48 GMT), the suspect is seen on camera riding an e-bike on Center Drive in the park
• Just before 07:00 (12:00 GMT), the gunman is seen on video cycling out of the park on West 85th Street
• At 07:12 (12:12 GMT), Thompson was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai West Hospital

The CEO of America's largest private health insurer was killed in a shooting outside a hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday, just a few blocks from Times Square.

This video explains the sequence of events.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from New York

Michael Tabman, a former FBI special agent, says New York police are likely to catch the suspect in Thompson's killing in a matter of days, even though he has so far managed to evade police.

"There’s a lot of leads to go on," Tabman tells me, pointing out DNA the suspect may have left on the bullets, surveillance photos police have just released and clues about his potential whereabouts.

"Even that first picture they had with his hood on and mask on, even that was enough for someone who knows him to be able to identify him," Tabman says.

According to Tabman it's more likely that tips from people who know the suspect would lead to his arrest, rather than facial technology based on poor quality surveillance photos.

Police have yet to name a motive for the suspect. "I doubt it's to the CEO himself. He's probably more of a symbol,” adds Tabman.