NEW YORK — The masked gunman who gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson near the Hilton in Midtown is believed to have fled New York City on an interstate bus shortly after the killing amid an intense manhunt, NYPD officials said Friday.

NYPD detectives, with the help of Port Authority police, have managed to track the gunman’s movements from when he first arrived in the city to immediately after the deadly shooting, when he traveled by various means to an uptown bus terminal within just 46 minutes after the cold-blooded killing, at which point he disappeared, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters at 1 Police Plaza on Friday.

“Our detectives are doing a very, very extensive video canvas,” said Kenny. “We’re working from back at the Hilton hotel, from the incident itself all the way to uptown Manhattan.”

Kenny insisted at Friday’s press briefing that while Thompson’s killer may have fled the city, the NYPD would bring him to justice — no matter how long it took.

“This isn’t ‘Blue Bloods.’ We’re not going to solve this in 60 minutes,” Kenny said. “We’re painstakingly going through every bit of evidence that we come across. Eventually, when an apprehension is made, we’ll have to present all these facts to a judge and jury. So we’re taking our time, we’re doing it right, making sure we’re going to get justice for this victim and closure for his family.”

Police sources said the suspect arrived in the city on a Greyhound bus from Atlanta on the evening of Nov. 24.

Although the bus left from Atlanta, it was not immediately clear where the gunman boarded the bus. NYPD detectives are working with Greyhound workers to help identify all passengers, police sources said.

A Greyhound spokesman said in a statement that the company was cooperating with investigators but couldn’t comment further.

Port Authority police have recovered video images of the suspect walking through the terminal after disembarking from the bus, a police source with knowledge of the case said.

Footage has also been recovered of the gunman exiting a Midtown subway station at 57th Street and riding an e-bike from Central Park, video and images seen by the New York Daily News show.

He found his way to the HI New York City Hostel on Amsterdam Avenue near West 104th Street, where cops recovered images of the suspect without a mask and smiling at someone behind the reception desk.

The hostel staffer reportedly got the suspect to smile by flirting with him and asking him to pull down his mask to “see his handsome face.”

Cops released the images Thursday on the second day of the manhunt.

Aside from that slip-up, the gunman never revealed his face, including while noshing at a Starbucks or while staying in the room in the hostel he shared with two strangers, Kenny said.

“He didn’t know the two roommates and the entire time he was there he kept his mask on,” Kenny told reporters, adding the suspect did not speak with his roommates, either.

The suspect booked a room at the hostel using a fake New Jersey ID, sources said.

“We do not have his name and, at this point, we believe he acted alone,” Kenny said, adding, “obviously, that can change down the line.”

Police are also trying to identify the massive pistol the gunman used. Although they have yet to recover the weapon, investigators believe it is a B&T VP9, a firearm with an attached suppressor that is manufactured in Switzerland.

Cops are investigating a recent purchase of this type of firearm in Connecticut to see if it could be linked to the killing.

New York Mayor Eric Adams spoke about the manhunt on Friday, telling WPIX cops were “on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice.”

In a similar interview on 1010 WINS radio station, Adams, a retired NYPD captain, said he had never seen a murder quite like this one.

“In my entire 22 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen a silencer before used in a crime in the city, but here you had someone (who did),” he said. “Clearly, this was not a random act. Our preliminary investigation sees this as a targeted shooting, but we are moving closer to apprehending him and taking this dangerous person off the streets of our country.”

The suspect shot Thompson, 50, as he walked to a Hilton hotel on West 54th Street and Sixth Avenue where he was about to address colleagues and company investors at a conference, police said.

Harrowing surveillance footage shows the man shoot Thompson in the back, then fire three more times, at one point pausing to coolly clear a jam in his pistol, before continuing to fire.

He fled the scene on a bicycle and disappeared into Central Park, but cops picked up his trail when he was later seen walking on 86th Street and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side, Kenny said.

According to Kenny, the gunman was finally seen entering a cab that dropped him off near the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal at 178th Street and Broadway — his last known location — around 7:30 a.m., just 45 minutes after the fatal shooting.

“Those buses are interstate buses,” Kenny said. “That’s why we believe he may have left New York City."

In addition, Kenny on Friday announced that police have recovered a large, gray backpack following a large-scale search of Central Park and that investigators are currently working to determine if the distinctive satchel belonged to the killer.

Cops found the words “Deny,” “Delay” and “Depose” written in Sharpie on the bullets — reminiscent of the insurance industry mantra “Deny, Delay, Defend” for delaying claims and maximizing profits — leading police to believe that the killer has a beef with the health insurance industry.

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

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

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(Josephine Stratman contributed to this story.)

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