A former American Express executive suspected of gunning down a prominent Long Island equestrian rider through his window was picked up Wednesday in Tennessee after a two-week manhunt, officials said.
A swarm of federal agents, local cops and Suffolk County detectives blew through the door of a small home in the town of Seymore and found Brett Knight cowering alone, authorities said.
He signed an extradition waiver and will be shipped to New York to face questioning in the shooting death of Ross Reisner last month at his East Setauket home.
Sources said that Knight, who was found with two handguns, rented a room in the home situated roughly 20 minutes from Knoxville.
He had recently purchased a motorcycle and had used it to elude authorities across the country until selecting the city of 10,000 residents and rolling green hills as a refuge.
The fugitive was tracked with the help of tipsters and cellphone information, local cops said.
The former human-resources specialist was once a rising executive with American Express but ended up suing the company, which he claimed fired him because he was HIV positive, according to court papers.
Knight rented a room from Reisner and his partner, Kevin Murray, in their Long Island spread when his suit was dismissed and his struggles worsened, sources said.
But the couple eventually kicked him out after his behavior became increasingly erratic and occasionally violent, the sources said.
The bad blood led to several confrontations, and the frightened pair called police on Knight several times. On one occasion, Knight sent the men a dead bird in a box, the sources said.
The gunman crept into a side yard next to the couple’s house and peered at his dual targets through a window on Sept, 24, Suffolk cops said.
He fired several shots through the glass and fatally struck Reisner in the abdomen. Murray was grazed by a bullet and began screaming for help as his partner lay dying.
Fearful that the shooter would return to target him, Murray has kept away from their home and has been staying with a relative, a source said.
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger