Getty ImagesPolice investigating the fatal shooting of a New York City health care executive are in Georgia as they hunt for his fleeing killer.
UnitedHealthcare’s Brian Thompson was shot multiple times by a gunman last week in Midtown. This person fled and then got on a bus out of the city.
Law enforcement sources told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that officers were deployed to the southern state and stopped along the bus route.
The search entered its fifth day on Monday, although police have yet to reveal the name or motive of the suspect, who was photographed several times on CCTV wearing a mask.
Much of the police activity has focused on New York’s Central Park, which appears to have formed part of the gunman’s escape route.
Sources told CBS that the lake was searched for a second day on Sunday and a discarded backpack was found nearby that contained a jacket and some banknotes from the Monopoly board game but no gun.
Police believe he rode his bicycle into the park shortly after the shooting, then took a taxi after leaving the park on the Upper West Side.
Images released over the weekend showed the masked suspect in the back of a taxi heading to the Port Authority bus station near Washington Heights.
He was not spotted on any cameras leaving the station so it is assumed he escaped by bus.
The same way he arrived in the city, 10 days before the shooting, on a Greyhound bus from Atlanta.
He then checked into a motel, where he momentarily revealed his face to the receptionist, providing police with their clearest image yet.
ReutersPolice have not said anything about why they think he killed Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two.
One theory is that it was an attack on the health insurance system.
Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “depose”, “deny” and “delay”.
This echoes the title of a book criticizing how insurance companies avoid paying claims.
Thompson’s death has flooded social media with people sharing their stories of being denied health care by insurance companies.
