Chief Detective Joe Kinney

This morning at 6.46 a.m., patrol officers from Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call of a person shot in front of the Hilton Hotel located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas.

This is between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street.

At 6.48 a.m., officers arrive and find the victim, Brian R. Thompson, a 50-year-old male on the sidewalk in front of the Hilton with gunshot wounds to his back and leg.

Mr. Thompson was removed by EMS to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7.12 AM.

Mr. Thompson is the CEO of United Healthcare and resides in Minnesota.

Detectives from Nightwatch, Midtown North Detector Squad, and Manhattan South Homicide responded to the scene and began their investigation.

What we know is that the shooter arrived at the location on foot about five minutes prior to the victim's arrival.

He stands alongside the building line as numerous other people and pedestrians pass him by.

From video, we see at 6.44 a.m., the victim is walking alone towards the Hilton after exiting his hotel across the street.

We believe the victim was headed to the Hilton Hotel to attend the United Health Group investors conference that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m.

The shooter then flees on foot northbound into an alleyway between 54th Street and 55th Street.

Once at West 55th Street, the shooter continues to walk westbound on the Avenue of the Americas, where he gets onto an electric E-City bike and rides northbound on the Avenue of the Americas.

towards Central Park.

At 6.48 a.m., we have the shooter riding this bike into Central Park at Center Drive.

We're still tracking video.

The last we see with him on that bike is in Central Park.

At the scene, we recover three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings.

The motive for this murder currently is unknown, but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted.

But at this point, we do not know why.

This does not appear to be a random act of violence.