A backpack found by agents in the search for the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson reportedly did not contain the murder weapon.
Authorities searching for the individual responsible for shooting Thompson to death in the early hours of Wednesday morning found the backpack inside Central Park on Friday.
Sources have since said Bloomberg that only a jacket was found inside the backpack, and did not give further details if it was the same one seen in the surveillance images.
The backpack was taken to a forensic laboratory on Friday night for examination after its discovery.
Police found the bag on their second sweep of the park and placed it among rocks just south of the park’s carousel.
On Saturday, images obtained by DailyMail.com showed teams of police divers in the water near the Bethseda fountain as part of their search.
Investigators confirmed the underwater search was linked to Wednesday’s “brazen and targeted attack”, which claimed the life of the 50-year-old father of two.
New York Mayor Eric Adams also said “the net is tightening” on her killer. The New York Post that officers now have a name for the suspect.
Police found the bag on their second sweep of the park and placed it among rocks just south of the park’s carousel.
The 50-year-old father of two was shot dead earlier this week, with images of his murder circulating on social media amid an ongoing search for his killer.
He spoke as the search for Thompson’s killer enters its fourth day, but said authorities will not release the suspect’s identity at this time.
“We don’t want to publish that now,” he said. ‘If you do, you’re basically tipping the person we’re looking for and we don’t want to give them any advantage.
‘Let him continue to believe that he can hide behind the mask. We reveal his face. “We are going to reveal who he is and bring him to justice.”
on Friday The night the NYPD gave a clearer idea of the killer’s movements. after he murdered Thompson.
They say he entered the park after the shooting at 6:48 a.m. and was then seen leaving on 77th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at 6:56 a.m.
Surveillance footage captured him near 86th Street and Columbus Avenue two minutes after he left the park, while he was still on his bike.
At 7:04 a.m. he took a taxi at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and headed north.
At 7:30 a.m. he arrived at the Port Authority bus terminal in the north of the city, where they say he boarded a bus and left the city.
New images emerged Friday night minutes after the shooting death of the suspect who was flying down Sixth Avenue on his electric bicycle.
Despite the lack of online investigations, the New York Police Department released images of the suspect in the case, one of which shows him smiling.
The images, obtained by NewsNationshowed a new angle of his escape route and showed him running across the street into the early morning darkness of Central Park. On Thursday, authorities said the man had arrived in the city in late November on a bus from Atlanta, Georgia, and had stayed at a shelter on the Upper West Side.
It was inside the shelter where a flirtatious exchange with a shelter worker allowed police officers to get their first look at the killer, when they asked him to lower his mask.
Before the murder, he was caught on surveillance cameras inside a Starbucks near the Hilton Hotel, where he shot Thompson.
He is said to have purchased two nutrition bars within the chain along with a bottle of water that was found at the scene.
The image of the found backpack shows what appears to be one of the bars in the side pocket.
Officers believe they are closing the net on Thompson’s killer as the search for him continues Friday. A police officer is seen here inside Central Park on Friday night.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny has said they believe the killer is a disgruntled former employee or an angry customer.
The motive has not yet been revealed, and police found bullet casings at the scene with the words “deny,” “depose” and “delay.”
The messages bear similarity to Jay Feinman’s 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend,” which details “why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what can be done about it.”
On Friday night, the FBI announced that it had also joined the investigation into the killer and offered $50,000 for any information leading to a conviction.