In the end, the big breakthrough came from two pictures in a New York hostel.
New York police combed through hundreds of hours of video footage looking for clues to the identity of the person who shot UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson in a brazen murder outside a Manhattan hotel last week, but released only two images to the public showed the suspect's face.
In every other video photo—in which the suspect pedaled away on a bicycle, stood at the counter of a coffee shop, or rode in a taxi—the man's face was obscured by a mask and hood.
But the two crucial images released the day after the shooting were, according to media reports, taken when the suspect lowered his balaclava to show his face in a flirtatious moment at the request of a hostel receptionist.
They are taken from above, and while he is still wearing a hood, his face can be clearly seen in the two images. In one he is smiling, in the other he looks serious.
On Monday, the suspect, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after he was seen eating at McDonald's by a fast-food restaurant employee who believed he resembled him in the pictures the shooter.
“This image was captured by the NYPD during one of their extensive video shoots,” New York Police Department Chief Detective Joseph Kenny said at a news conference.
“Hundreds of tips came into our hotline. Every lead was thoroughly investigated and we began releasing more photos as they came into our possession,” he said.
Advanced monitoring
New York has one of the most advanced surveillance systems of any major U.S. city, built largely after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD detective sergeant and now an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York York.
The number of cameras in New York is in the thousands, and all camera images can be monitored in real time and checked for previous footage using facial recognition software.
Mangione appeared to be aware of the extensive camera network and apparently took measures to protect his identity before, during and after the attack.
The first images released by police come from footage of last Wednesday's shooting, which showed the suspect wearing a dark hoodie and carrying a backpack.
Other footage showed him fleeing the scene and then riding his bike into Central Park. Over the weekend, police released a picture of the suspect in a taxi. He was masked in all of them.
Meanwhile, police searched for the backpack—and eventually found it in Central Park—tested evidence for DNA, combed through tips from the public, and ultimately concluded they no longer believed it was in New York City.
“For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video footage, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed all forensic evidence, DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and much more to narrow the net,” New York said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at Monday's press conference.
But the case revolved around a fast food employee recognizing a customer's face more than 200 miles outside of town.
“In this case, [where] “It really came down to the technology, the use of drones in Central Park, and it really came down to the video screen that we did,” Kenny said.
“We used every video source we could, hundreds and hundreds of hours from hundreds of sources, and that helped bring it up to speed.”
COSTAS PITAS, REUTERS
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