USA – A photo depicting a hooded man smiling –– a face mask pushed down around his neck –– may provide clues to find the suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

An image released by the New York Police Department shows a man authorities call a “person of interest wanted for questioning” in the Wednesday morning killing. He is captured in a flirtatious moment with a female employee at a hostel on New York’s Upper West Side where he had been staying, a law enforcement official told CNN. The employee asked the man to lower his face mask, which is when the photos released by authorities on Thursday were captured, the official told CNN. “He lowers the mask, and gives that big smile,” CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller said. “That little flirtation between the two of them, in some good-humored way, actually yielded what is so far the most significant clue to identifying him.”

The images from the hostel are among the key pieces of evidence investigators have as they search for a shooter still on the loose after gunning down the health care executive in midtown Manhattan before seemingly vanishing. Investigators also have a trail of surveillance video sightings and a burner phone and water bottle believed to have been dropped by the suspect when he fled the shooting scene – first on foot, then by bike – as well as ammunition with the words “depose” and “delay” written on them left at the scene of the crime, sources told CNN. (CNN)

Photo: NYPD on Thursday released photos of a person of interest wanted for questioning regarding the Midtown Manhattan homicide. (Photo: NYPD)