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.
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.
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.
Update added on Dec. 8 at 7:53 a.m. ET:
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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