ABC News reports that members of the New York City Police Department are appearing “to be closing in on an identity” of the man who shot and killed Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, 50-year-old Brian Thompson, early Wednesday morning.

Police have reportedly requested a search warrant for a location in the city where the suspect is believed to have been staying.

This comes hours after detectives allegedly found shell casings found at the scene of the shooting had the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” written on them. Detectives are still working to figure out if the words were meant as a message from the shooter and if they hinted as his motive.

New video shows the suspect biking out of Central Park along West 85th Street just before 7 a.m., which was about 15 minutes after the shooting. He was wearing a black hoodie and balaclava in the new video.

NYPD on Thursday released new photos of the shooting suspect:

The new photos are from a surveillance camera at the HI New York City Hostel, located at West 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. This is the location ABC news previously reported that NYPD obtained a search warrant for after determining the suspect may have stayed there.

Sources tell ABC News he checked into the hostel using an ID that wasn’t his.

Police say someone appearing to be the shooter is seen getting off the subway prior to the shooting.

The shooter had been seen on video at 5 a.m. Wednesday outside the Frederick Douglass Houses, which is a public housing project on the Upper West Side of New York City. He was also later seen holding an e-bike battery and police are working to determine whether he pre-positioned the bike and took the subway to the shooting scene.

NYPD also believes the gun used in the murder was a B&T Station Six, also known in Britain as a Welrod pistol. It does not have a silencer, but rather a long barrel that allows it to fire a nearly silent shot.

Detectives are working to trace the type of gun and on Thursday arrived at a shop in Connecticut that sells ones like it. Authorities say that the gun isn’t easy to get so detectives are going through recent purchases. The actual gun hasn’t been recovered.

Meanwhile, investigators in Minnesota are helping New York detectives by interviewing Thompson’s family, coworkers and friends to help determine a motive.

Thompson’s wife called him a generous and talented man in a statement provided on Wednesday, and a University of Minnesota finance professor is remembering him just as fondly after working closely together for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “he saved the country in terms of being able to be calm.”

The professor gave a message to Thompson’s children, saying, “They should know it now – your dad did extraordinary things, and the country should be grateful.”

However, that sentiment isn’t shared universally. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with a man early Thursday morning, who was standing outside UnitedHealthcare’s Minnetonka campus with a sign that said ‘deny them power, defend your rights and depose all tyrants’ — some of the same words used on casings found at the scene of Thompson’s murder.

“UnitedHealthcare is a company that’s known for denying claims,” said the man. “There are people who have died because of the fact they kept denying claims for people who need medical attention.”

As reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Thompson was shot multiple times at point-blank range outside a hotel located on Sixth Avenue between 53rd and 54th streets. Police say that as Thompson approached the hotel for an investors conference, the suspect approached him from behind and fired several shots.

Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the shooter and are offering a $10,000 reward for information. If you have information on the shooter, call 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS).

The shooting came months after HealthPartners announced it was dropping a UnitedHealthcare Medicare plan starting next year.