NYPD investigators found a gray backpack hidden in the brush in Central Park on Friday that may be the one abandoned by the assassin who shot and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to police. Investigators did not open the bag and instead sent it directly to the lab for forensic analysis, police sources said.
The backpack was found south of the carousel, near Heckscher Playground, and resembles the gray bag worn by the gunman when he shot Thompson, 50, outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown on Wednesday, sources said. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny described the killer’s bag as “very distinctive,” noting, “It is huge and gray.”
Big Breakthrough
NYPD
Paul Dering, founder and CEO of Peak Design, told The New York Times that he believes the backpack seen on the gunman in the surveillance images released by the NYPD might be a model of the “Everyday Backpack” sold by his company.
Dering said that the backpack used by the suspect appears to be an older model, available between 2016 and 2019, according to the report.
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He also said that he contacted the NYPD’s tip line to share the backpack’s similarity, and the person who answered said they had already received “hundreds” of tips identifying the bag as a Peak Design product.
Chief Kenny revealed that the NYPD deployed over 100 officers, along with drones, to Central Park on Friday to search for clues, following the gunman’s escape route.
On Friday night, more than 20 officers with flashlights were seen searching near the Naumburg Bandshell entrance to Rumsey Playfield.
NYPD
Bullets recovered from the crime scene in front of the Hilton hotel in Midtown are also undergoing testing to see if they match those from any previous shootings, Kenny confirmed on Friday.
Investigators suspect that the masked gunman left the city after footage showed him entering a Port Authority bus station near 178th Street and Broadway about an hour after the shooting. However, no cameras have captured him leaving the station, Kenny added.
Police Yet to Get Any Success
After the shooting just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, the assailant fled on foot into an alley, then rode a bicycle up Sixth Avenue and onto Central Park’s Center Drive, according to police. The shooter was later spotted in a video leaving Central Park on the bike near West 77th Street, Kenny reported.
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Kenny also said that the gunman was seen riding the bike on West 85th Street and Columbus Avenue, but by the time he reached West 86th Street and Columbus Avenue, he had abandoned it.
The suspect then made his way to Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, where video footage shows him getting into a northbound taxi, Kenny added.
Prior to the shooting, the still unidentified gunman is believed to have stayed at a hostel on the Upper West Side, where he reportedly kept his mask on at all times, even in his room, according to his unsuspecting roommates.
“[The roommates] said he didn’t speak. He kept his mask on even when he was eating. He would pull the mask down to take a bite,” Kenny said.
NYPD
Other video footage just before the shooting showed the gunman purchasing a water bottle and a Kind bar at a nearby Starbucks, according to Kenny. However, the fingerprints collected during the investigation have not led to any breakthroughs, the chief of detectives said.
“The print is of no value, meaning that it is unusable for identification. It could be enhanced later on,” Kenny said.
Kenny said that no items of “investigative value” were found in Thompson’s room.
