New Yorkers mockingly celebrated the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Washington Square Park with a truly tasteless shooter-look-a-like contest — as the frantic manhunt for the brutal killer entered its fourth day.
Eight participants wearing hooded tops and face masks were surrounded by dozens of spectators Friday, whose cheers amounted to votes in the nose-thumping stunt.
The winner, whose green jacket and face covering made him a dead ringer for the cold-blooded killer, said he was heading to the park after hearing about the competition that morning.
“I didn’t get any looks until I got here and now everyone wants their picture taken with me,” he told The Post.
“He’s the one,” one audience member noted as he was introduced as “contestant number six.”
The wannabe doppelgänger noted that he didn’t have to dress up specifically for the event, saying, “I wear this everywhere.”
His killer looks earned him $50.
The champion said he has had his own problems with health insurers covering some of his medications, though he admitted he is not a UnitedHealthcare customer.
“People don’t feel good about the current state of affairs in our world,” he noted of the unsympathetic response to the CEO’s shocking murder.
One of the participants, who was shooting with a bubble gun, had a handwritten sign draped over their black clothing that read “Deny Defend Depose” – the three words the gunman scribbled on the shell casings he left at the scene.
“Bro, I don’t know if y’all should be doing this, but your life choices I guess,” someone shouted as the participants stood together.
Thompson was shot just before dawn Wednesday outside a Midtown hotel as he headed to an investor event on foot — and without any security.
The killer fled quickly after the on-camera killing, speeding through Central Park on a bicycle and at one point leaving the city on a bus, authorities said.
Police released surveillance camera photos showing the gunman pulling down his mask to flirt with a woman working the desk at an Upper West Side youth hostel where he is believed to have stayed when he arrived in the city.
He was still confused Saturday evening, but Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that police had identified the shooter.
“The net is tightening,” the mayor told reporters Saturday outside a Police Athletic League holiday party in Harlem.
