Could you do it with a burner phone and load the app from a Visa gift card? Rent and place the city bike around the corner, do the deed, drop the phone (whether on accident or on purpose), take off on the bike.
That would be something - buying a whole-ass e-bike to escape from your murder scene with. Interesting, too, that that bike hasn't been found yet, which means he didn't ditch it anywhere nearby, if at all.
Probably why he had an e-bike. Fast, silent, small, and easy to ride long distances compared to a normal bike, or a car in New York. Definitely helps that you can buy them for cash, without a license, and often person-to-person second hand
And there's a lot of ebikes on the used market that were stolen in the first place. I've been trying to buy an ebike for a while and it's something that's on my mind while shopping used. So the seller is even more incentivized to keep their mouth shut.