NYPD investigators found a gray backpack hidden in the brush in Central Park on Friday that could be the one ditched by the assassin who gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, cops and sources said.
The bag was recovered south of the carousel near Heckscher playground and looks similar to the gray backpack worn by the shooter when he opened fire on Thompson, 50, outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown on Wednesday, sources said.
A photo obtained by The Post shows the sleekly-designed backpack in good condition after police found it.
Investigators did not open the bag and sent it straight to the lab for forensic testing, police sources told The Post.
Thompson’s killer’s bag was described by NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny as “very distinctive,” in a Friday press briefing. “It is huge and gray” he added.
Paul Dering, the founder and chief executive of Peak Design, told The New York Times he thinks the backpack worn by the gunman in the surveillance photos released by the NYPD could be a version of the “Everyday Backpack” his company sells.
Dering said the at-large suspect’s backpack appears to be an older version that was on the market from 2016 and 2019, according to the report.
Dering said he reported the backpack’s likeness to the NYPD’s tip line and the person who answered the phone said they had already received “hundreds” of tips about the bag being a Peak Design product, according to the outlet.
Kenny said the NYPD deployed more than 100 officers, along with drones, to Central Park Friday to look for clues as investigators have been following the gunman’s escape path.
On Friday night, more than two dozen cops with flashlights were seen scouring the area near the Naumburg Bandshell entrance to Rumsey Playfield.
Bullets recovered from the crime scene in front of the Hilton hotel in Midtown are also being tested to see if they match bullets from any prior shootings, Kenny said Friday.
Investigators believe the masked gunman ultimately left town after footage showed him walking into a Port Authority bus center near 178th Street and Broadway about an hour after the shooting — but no cameras show him exiting the station, Kenny said.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- The methodical killer used a firearm with a silencer outside the Hilton hotel along Sixth Avenue.
- The gunman fired at Thompson multiple times, striking his back and right calf before fleeing on foot.
- The NYPD released a new photo of the hooded suspect standing in front of the counter at the Starbucks at West 56th Street and 6th Avenue, just minutes from the Hilton hotel where he gunned down Thompson, 50.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had been getting threats before he was killed.
- The NYPD is investigating a possible message — which appears to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — engraved on live rounds and shell casings left behind by the masked assassin.
Follow along with The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding Brian Thompson’s murder.
After the shooting just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, the cold-blooded killer fled on foot into an alleyway and then rode a bicycle up Sixth Avenue and onto Central Park’s Center Drive, police have said.
The shooter was then seen in a video canvas exiting Central Park on the bike near West 77th Street, Kenny said.
Kenny said the gunman was still seen on the bike on West 85th Street and Columbus Avenue, but he had ditched it by the time he was seen at West 86th Street and Columbus Ave.
The gunman then headed to Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street where he is seen on video getting into a northbound taxi cab, Kenny said.
Before the shooting, the still-unidentified suspect reportedly stayed at a hostel in the Upper West Side but kept his mask up – even in his room, according to the alleged shooter’s unwitting 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.
Other video footage right before the murder showed the soon-to-be-gunman buying a water bottle and a Kind bar from a nearby Starbucks, according to Kenny.
But fingerprints gathered during the investigation have been a dead end so far, 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.
Nothing of any “investigative value” was found in Thompson’s room either, Kenny said.
But Kenny said the NYPD has teams examining every tip that comes in — including some from out of state.
