Welcome to the News Hour. New York police and federal agents tonight say they're gathering more

clues on the gunmen who fatally shot a health care CEO in Manhattan this week, as the search

has now become a nationwide manhunt. New York City's police commissioner said in an interview

today that investigators have reasoned to believe the suspect left the city.

Investigators are attempting to track the gunman using a trail of surveillance videos,

a burner phone, and a water bottle believed to have been dropped when he fled the scene.

No arrests have been made in the killing of Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old executive who led

United Healthcare,

one of the country's largest health insurance companies. Also in New York, the most serious

charge of manslaughter has been dismissed against Daniel Penny, a man accused of using a fatal

chokehold on a mentally ill and unruly subway passenger last year. The jury today became

deadlocked on the charge, which could have sent Penny, a Marine veteran, to prison for as many as 15

years. Jurors have been deliberating since Tuesday and were told to keep deliberating by the judge

on a second lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide when they return

next week. Turning overseas now to Syria, where rebels are seizing more territory and are now closing

in on the country's third largest city of Homs. If Homs is lost, it could be a crippling blow

to the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad.

The insurgents, led by a jihadi group known as HTS, already successfully captured the major

cities of Aleppo and Hama earlier this week. They've reportedly taken over two towns just

north of Homs today.

And that is where eyewitness video showed the rebels celebrating as their convoys sped through the streets with little resistance from the Syrian army.

The insurgents have vowed to continue their steady march toward the country's capital of Damascus.

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