Police Theorize C.E.O. Gunman Dumped Getaway Bike and It Was Swiped

New York police said they have new ideas about how the gunman who fatally shot a health care executive in Manhattan on Dec.4 escaped after he fled through Central Park on a bicycle.After the attack outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel on West 54th Street, he likely abandoned the bicycle on the Upper West Side, where the police believe someone saw it and stole it, said Carlos Nieves, the department’s assistant commissioner of public information.Initially, investigators theorized that the man who shot Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, had left New York on a bus from a terminal in Washington Heights.

Cameras captured the man entering the depot on West 178th Street at about 7:30 a.m., but not leaving.After fleeing Midtown on the bike in the early morning, the gunman hailed a cab at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and traveled to the bus station, paying the fare in cash.But surveillance camera footage reviewed more recently by investigators showed him leaving the bus depot by subway.He took the A train downtown to Pennsylvania Station, Mr.

Nieves said.Though many trains leave the station and head west each day, the police are still trying to figure out exactly how the suspect got to Pennsylvania, where he was ultimately captured after nearly a week, Mr.Nieves said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....