Backpack Potentially Linked to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killer Discovered in Central Park; 2 Updates
Investigators “did not open the bag and sent it straight to the lab for forensic testing.”
During a grid search of Central Park on Friday involving more than 100 officers as well as drones, the NYPD may have uncovered the backpack believed to have been discarded by the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A spokesperson for the department told The New York Post that investigators “did not open the bag and sent it straight to the lab for forensic testing.”
Thompson was shot dead in front of a midtown Manhattan hotel at approximately 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
The backpack’s unique design had been a key detail in many early reports about the shooting.
Paul Dering, the founder and chief executive of backpack maker Peak Design, told The New York Times that he received at least ten text messages that morning from acquaintances who had identified it as one of his company’s products. Each included photos of the suspect carrying the bag and asked, “This your backpack?”
Dering said it looks like an older version of the “Everyday Backpack” his company sells, which he noted had been “on the market from 2016 to 2019.”
This prompted him to call the NYPD tipline. Dering told the Times, “the person who answered said he had received hundreds of calls from people telling him the bag was a Peak Design item, and said he would pass along the information to detectives.”
It’s possible the company’s purchase records can provide the police with new clues about the identity of the shooter. Dering said he would “check with his general counsel about what information he could release without violating the company’s privacy guidelines.”
“Of course, my instinct would be to do whatever is possible to help track this person down,” he added.
The NYPD confirms with me that "THE" Grey backpack in Question connected to the suspect in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been recovered in Central Park.
The backpack is being processed for evidence now.
No word on what was inside, where in the park it… pic.twitter.com/fcnlSa2X1V
— Laura Ingle (@lauraingle) December 6, 2024
BREAKING NEWS ALERT: Here is a photo of the backpack NYPD found in Central Park that they believe belongs to the cold-blooded killer who assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. pic.twitter.com/UvqV0AGLJq
— Saint James Hartline (@JamesHartline) December 7, 2024
It was widely reported late Friday afternoon that police believe the gunman has left New York City. During what the Post describes as a “blitz of interviews Friday,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said that video footage showed the suspect walking into “a Port Authority bus center near 178th Street and Broadway about an hour after shooting Thompson.”
Kenny told CNN, “Those buses are interstate buses. … That’s why we believe he may have left New York City.”
“We have video of him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal,” he said. “We don’t have any video of him exiting so we believe he may have gotten on a bus.”
This leaves police trying to determine which bus he may have boarded.
Sources told the Post that “investigators are looking to see if the gunman got on a bus headed to Atlanta, Georgia — the city where the Greyhound in which he traveled to New York City in had originated from.”
As far as the motive for the murder, Kenny told reporters, “Nothing in our investigation at this time indicates that it had anything to do with his personal life. … Our thought on it is obviously it could possibly be a disgruntled employee or disgruntled client.”
He also said that, so far, investigators have not found any “indication of prior interaction between the shooter and the victim.”
Police interviewed the suspect’s roommates at the Upper West Side hostel, where he had stayed prior to the assassination. They told police he never spoke to them and wore his mask “the entire time he was there,” even during meals.
Kenny said the gun, which “appears to be a larger handgun,” could possibly be “a veterinarian type of gun” which is “a weapon commonly used on farms and ranches. If an animal has to get put down, the animal can be shot without causing a loud noise.”
The Post reported:
After shooting Thompson along West 56th Street, the gunman rode a bicycle up Sixth Avenue and onto Central Park’s Center Drive, police said.
Kenny said the shooter exited Central Park, still on the bike, near West 77th Street.
Video footage later showed him walking near West 86th Street and Columbus Avenue, before he hopped into a cab that took him to the bus center, according to Kenny.
The revelation the suspect may have left New York City dovetails with investigators’ increasing belief that the assassin came from out of town to murder Thompson, sources told The Post.
The masked man seen in surveillance footage from the killing — and smiling chillingly in the sole image of his face — likely had no ties to the Big Apple, explaining his apparent days-long stay at an Upper West Side hostel, sources said.
The search continues. I assume the police know far more than they share with the public. The newly discovered backpack, if it determined to belong to the suspect, will likely provide the NYPD with fresh clues or evidence in the case.
The NYPD is currently offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
Fox News reported that late Friday night, the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. An FBI “wanted” poster reads: “The FBI is assisting the New York City Police Department in the shooting death of a 50-year-old male victim on the morning of December 4, 2024, at approximately 6:40 am outside of 1335 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. We are seeking the public’s help in identifying the unknown suspect responsible for the homicide.”
The Fox report noted that “additional surveillance video taken between Midtown and the Upper West Side continues to emerge.”
Update added on Dec. 7 at 10:23 p.m. ET:
“Sources with knowledge of the ongoing investigation” told ABC News that the backpack found in Central Park believed to have been discarded by the suspect contained a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and oddly, Monopoly money.
NEW: Monopoly money discovered in the backpack found in Central Park believed to belong to the person who executed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
No identification of the suspect has been made however officials say they are getting closer.
“This backpack found in Central… pic.twitter.com/8AIXVjm0kD
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 8, 2024
The sources also said that while police are making good progress in the case, as of Saturday evening, they are still unable to identify the suspect.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at a Police Athletic League holiday party in Harlem earlier in the day, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “The net [around the killer] is tightening.” Hopefully, he has some information that hasn’t been disclosed to the public yet.
‘The net is tightening’ on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s suspected killer, NYC Mayor Adams says https://t.co/HFdkr0as4Q pic.twitter.com/AxIMCQLwaN
— New York Post (@nypost) December 7, 2024
Update added on Dec. 8 at 7:53 a.m. ET:
🚨 BREAKING – NEW PHOTOS OF CEO'S SUSPECTED KILLER: Cops release 2 pics, 'the net is tightening,' says Adams https://t.co/FB2lzVveWt pic.twitter.com/Li0K80bV20
— 1010 WINS on 92.3 FM (@1010WINS) December 8, 2024
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
“We have his picture, his DNA. his fingerprints, his cell phone and his back pack but still can’t identify him. If we just had a little more evidence…..”
Last night, police released clear new photos of the killer’s face which I just added at the bottom of the post. Scroll up.
Rudy said they should have known who he is last night
Rudy would know
I have no idea why someone would want to kill the CEO of a health insurance company that denies claims at twice the average of other companies. In fact, denials quadrupled under his tenure as CEO, possibly due to them instituting AI at deny claims with robotic speed. The world is truly worse off without him, after all, we might have seen him raise those denial rates even higher in the coming years.
By all means, the NYPD and FBI should spend millions of dollars tracking down his killer, just like they spend millions of dollars on tracking down everyone else murdered in New York.
The main people responsible for all the health insurance issues these days are Barky and all of the dirtbag Dem Congressmen (including the lying sh*trag Stupak and his gang of faux-abortion opponents) who voted to destroy our health care system with their national socialized BarkyCare … and traitor John McShame for killing Trump’s promise to repeal BarkyCare when he had the Presidency and both houses in 2017.
True, but that doesn’t change the fact that United Health Care engages in sleazy practices in processing insurance claims. So glad my company switched just a few weeks ago to a different carrier.
Doesn’t excuse the murder, though.
Health care is a commodity like everything else. It does not grow for free on trees. OBammy totally destroyed any direct payment/accountability in the system. They then sent the message that everything is covered and everything is free, and feigned ignorance when that turned out to not be true. Controlling access to health care is their final means of controlling people. The government big enough to give you everything is the government big enough to take it all away. The WuFlu was just a test to see how far along they were in that project.
As usual, the press is all over this with misinformation (not disinformation, I believe).
The words written on the three cartridge casings have been reported differently by different sources. The reports I choose to believe at this time (because the semantics make the clearest sense) have them saying DELAY, DEPOSE, and DENY. That sure sounds like a disgruntled policyholder pissed at how his claim was handled. In fact, it sounds like a motto you might even find in company training presentations (like BATF’s “Always Think Forfeiture”), and perhaps a whistleblower may bless us with such a leak in the near future,
Also, two days ago, “gun nuts” had already pegged the gun used in the video:
So not a veterinary gun at all.
I think this whole thing was a tragic mishap. The shooter simply misunderstood what healthcare open season meant.
and smiling chillingly in the sole image of his face
Why they keep showing smiley’s pictures and falsely suggesting it’s the same person is beyond me.
Note the company tag on the right side of the upper left pocket of smiley’s jacket.
Then try to find it on any of the other pics of the shooter.
Possibly another Richard Jewel incident in the making.
Nice distraction from pardons being handed out.
America is sick of political leftism and not CEOs.
Y’all are thinking it, and I’m saying it: ‘What did the FIB know, and how much of this did the FIB orchestrate?’
What has any of this got to do with the FBI, and why the hell are they offering $50,000 for information?
Its just a murder, NYC has lots of them.
Hey silly rabbit:
Trix is for kids &
Healthcare is for illegals
If they didn’t open the bag how could they have a reasonable belief it belonged to the shooter? The bag’s contents are vital to finding the owner, and no investigation can stand waiting for the lab to do their thing before they use said contents.
It was a garden variety 9mm with a non-functioning can. The vet gun or welrod would not have 3 stove-pipe jams requiring the ejection of a stove-piped cartridge, as evidenced by 3 fired and 3 unfired cases on the ground. Shooting a suppressed platform in 9mm is iffy at best, and subtle changes like testing at 70 degrees and then shooting at 30 degrees can be all the difference between success and failure. Reality isn’t the movies.
Gun Jesus spoke on this shortly after seeing the video, and of course CNN ran with the first thing that was suggested to them.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/POubd0SoCQ8
Major. Were the three Words on expended brass or the ejected rounds which had to be racked out? If he wanted to get the Three Words out, he was taking a chance that something would go wrong, or wrong-er. Or not wrong enough.
If not, why bother?
How did he know the target was in one hotel and speaking in another across the street and at what time? “lying in wait” implies maybe hours but apparently it was not many minutes.