UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting latest: Man being held for questioning in Pennsylvania, sources say
NYPD
(NEW YORK) — A man in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was stopped with a fake New Jersey ID and is being held for questioning in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The man had walked into a McDonald’s where a witness recognized him from the images circulated by police, sources said.
The man had a similar gun to the one used in Wednesday’s assassination-style killing outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the sources said. Altoona police also recovered a computer.
The NYPD is sending detectives to Altoona, the sources said. Altoona is in central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Before the shooting, the suspected gunman checked into an Upper West Side hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, police sources told ABC News.
Meanwhile, new video obtained by ABC News shows the killer waiting for Thompson moments before the shooting. The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.
The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson because he loitered while others wandered by.
Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.
On Wednesday morning, the masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”
Right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
The FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect arrived in New York on Nov. 24 on a bus that originated Atlanta, although it’s unclear if his travels began in Atlanta.
In New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team searched underwater in Central Park near the Bethesda Fountain.
(NEW YORK) — A man was nearly electrocuted to death after being hired to hang Christmas lights on a large tree in Massachusetts, police said.
The incident occurred on Wednesday at approximately 10 a.m. when the Wellesley Police Emergency Communications Center received a 911 call reporting a man had possibly been electrocuted on Falmouth Circle in Wellesley, according to a statement from the Wellesley Police Department.
“The victim, a contractor hired by a resident, was installing holiday lights on a large tree using a pole,” authorities said. “It appears that the pole being used came into close proximity, or contact with, a primary electrical line on a utility pole. The victim appears to have then received a life-threatening electrical shock.”
The man who suffered the electric shock immediately fell unconscious, appeared to be having a seizure and had stopped breathing, police said.
The Wellesley Police Dispatcher subsequently provided the person who called the emergency services CPR instructions and the caller administered CPR until officers arrived on scene a few moments later.
“Wellesley Police Officers Tim Gover, Mike Pino, and Scott Whittemore were the first emergency responders to arrive on scene and observed that the victim appeared to be in sudden cardiac arrest,” police said. “A co-worker of the victim was performing chest compressions as instructed by Wellesley Police Dispatchers. Wellesley Police Officers took over CPR and began to clear the area, as the actual cause of the electrocution was unknown at the time.”
Emergency responders then used a defibrillator on the victim while continuing to provide CPR. Multiple shocks were given to the man until he was revived and regained a pulse, police said.
“The victim was transported to Newton Wellesley Hospital by Needham Fire,” according to the Wellesley Police Department. “The victim was initially treated at Newton Wellesley Hospital, and then transferred to the Massachusetts General Hospital.”
Wellesley Police Detectives conducted an investigation and determined that the large pole the man was using to string the holiday lights came into close proximity, or actual contact with, a primary electrical line on the top of the utility pole and he was electrocuted when contact was made.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was contacted per departmental policy to investigate,” police said. “OSHA investigators responded to the scene and are working with the WMLP and Wellesley Police. The Wellesley Police, Fire, and WMLP Departments extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim and his family during this tragic incident.”
The incident is currently under investigation and no further information is available at this time.
(NEW YORK) — Amid the Thanksgiving travel rush, a stowaway was discovered Tuesday night onboard a Delta Air Lines flight out of JFK Airport in New York City headed to Paris.
Authorities said the stowaway was discovered on board Delta Flight 264 from JFK to Paris and removed after the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The person who boarded the flight bypassed the document check podium and a gate agent, but was fully screened at a security checkpoint at JFK, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News. That means they weren’t carrying any prohibited items and did not pose a security risk, TSA said.
It’s unclear how the person got around the document check podium.
The FBI is aware of the incident.
No other details about the person who boarded the flight have been made public.
A representative for Delta said the airline is “conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”
A video taken by another passenger on board the flight shows the flight attendants walking down the aisle as the pilot’s voice on the intercom says, “We are just waiting for the police to come on board … They directed us to keep everyone on the plane until they sort out the extra passenger.”
(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” over what the appeals court called “a significant appearance of impropriety,” the ruling said.
The criminal indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Following the ruling, the Fulton County DA’s office filed notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment further to ABC News.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
“The Georgia Court Of Appeals in a well-reasoned and just decision has held that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in the case against President Trump requires the disqualification of Willis and her office,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in response to the ruling. “The Court highlighted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by the disqualification of her and her entire office. As the Court rightfully noted, only the remedy of disqualification will suffice to restore public confidence.”
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
The Georgia election interference case is one of four criminal cases that were brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021. His two federal cases, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election and refusing to return classified documents, were dropped following Trump’s reelection last month, due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump’s sentencing in New York, following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 election, was postponed indefinitely following Trump’s reelection last month.
