Police hunt for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s boss in Manhattan

Members of the New York police crime scene unit investigate bullets lying on the sidewalk at the scene outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot (Stefan Jeremiah/AP)

Investigators are searching for clues that could help them identify the masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest US health insurance companies on a Manhattan sidewalk, then disappeared into Central Park.

UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush on Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown, blocks from tourist draws like Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art.