NEW YORK — The NYPD on Thursday released new images of the gunman wanted for killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as the manhunt led police to the Upper West Side, officials said.

The images, taken at the HI New York City Hostel on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 104th St., show the suspect without a mask and smiling at someone as he stands by the front desk.

The surveillance images were taken before Thompson was gunned down outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown, police sources said. Detectives swarmed the hostel at about 4 p.m. Wednesday after tracking the gunman to the location.

The gunman was staying in a fourth-floor room of the hostel before the shooting, according to hostel residents. It was not immediately disclosed how long he had stayed in the low-priced room before the shooting occurred.

Matheus Taranto, who was visiting the U.S. from Brazil and was staying in a room next to the suspect, realized something was off when all the police arrived and began running forensic tests in one of the bathrooms used by floor tenants.

“I was going to brush my teeth, and there was [a detective] and he was like, ‘No, you can’t go to this bathroom,’” Taranto, 24, recalled. “I asked him why, if something happened, and he was like, ‘No, nothing. Nothing major happened right now. You don’t have to worry.’”

“He just shoved it off,” Taranto said about the detective.

He didn’t realize until Thursday that they were looking for the man who killed Thompson. The room he had been staying in was locked Thursday, Taranto said.

“I’m used to violence because I’m from Rio de Janeiro,” said Taranto, a sports reporter who arrived from Brazil on Thanksgiving to catch some local basketball and football games. “There’s a lot there, but, like, not this kind. [Not] professional assassin stuff. So yeah, it was pretty shocking.”

The NYPD put out images of the suspect Thursday in the hopes someone recognizes him.

“The full investigative efforts of the NYPD are continuing, and we are asking for the public’s help,” the NYPD said on X as they released the new images.

Hostel tenant Camilla De Heer, who is visiting New York from Kingston, Ontario, said she and a friend returned to the hostel about 1 a.m. Thursday morning only to learn that one of their fellow tenants was a killer.

“[Wednesday] evening was the first night that we stayed, so it was quite eventful,” she told the Daily News. “We saw a very, very drunk guy in our hostel downstairs. He said he saw the shooter. We just didn’t really take him serious, because we thought, ‘you have drunk a lot.’”

The witness recognized the shooter from the surveillance pics, De Heer, 26, said.

“I know it’s him!” the drunk man kept screaming, she recalled. “I saw him, and it was my neighbor!”

“I think we also just thought it can’t be so we just ignored it,” De Heer said, now realizing their drunk neighbor was right.

Detectives have been visiting hostels in the area after they tracked the suspect to the area, police sources said.

The suspect killed Thompson, 50, as he walked to a Hilton hotel on W. 54th St. and Sixth Ave. where he was about to address colleagues and company investors at an conference, police said.

Harrowing surveillance footage shows the man shoot Thompson in the back then cooly clear a jam in his pistol, before firing at least three more times.

He fled the scene on a bicycle and disappeared in Central Park, but cops picked up his trail late Wednesday night on the Upper West Side.

Police are offering $10,000 reward for any information leading to the gunman’s capture.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

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