NY - UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Midtown. #3

[eddie_van]

Wouldn't the lack of finding the backpack by now indicate that he likely met an accomplice in Central Park?

No, unless they get lucky, it will take a long time to find something as small as a backpack in Central Park.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Is this new?

Police Find Backpack in Central Park, a Possible Link to Gunman Who Killed C.E.O.

Three days after an insurance executive was fatally shot on a Manhattan sidewalk, the authorities provided a detailed timeline of the suspect’s movements. It was not yet known what was in the backpack.

www.nytimes.com

Police said the gunman fled the shooting scene into Central Park on a bicycle. Video surveillance of the park showed that he exited it on the west side without his backpack, according to a law enforcement official. Officers searched the park on Thursday but were unable to find the pack, the official said

The capture of him exiting still baffles me. IF they have surveillance of him leaving the west side of central park... why don't they have more footage of where he went??? And, if they are certain he was without the backpack.... how hard did they look for it?

 

[Herat]

The capture of him exiting still baffles me. IF they have surveillance of him leaving the west side of central park... why don't they have more footage of where he went??? And, if they are certain he was without the backpack.... how hard did they look for it?

I just keep wondering if there was an accomplice, and it's the accomplice we are seeing on the bicycle.

 

[no nonsense]

The way they carry themselves, the face structure, and Atlanta airport. If Atlanta was not a part of the picture, I would place him as a techie from SF or NYC. But Atlanta points to someone having flown in from outside.

He left Atlanta (if he boarded the bus there) from the Greyhound bus terminal, not the airport.

 

[whitelilac]

I'm not so sure. I think he could have on the black backpack, but without much stuff in it.

Maybe. But it's been reported he's not wearing the backpack. It's a short video but maybe they were able to enhance it. They also did a major grid search of the park, so I assume they are pretty sure he disposed of it before the 85th street sighting.

 

[citizen_sleuth]

No. They had something like a thousand officers scouring the park looking for that backpack. To date, they haven’t found it.

John Miller said they searched dumpsters, trash cans, and did a grid search.

They must have missed it, or some opportunistic person grabbed it when they saw it unattended.

I'm a bit surprised they haven't found the backpack yet.

He entered Central Park at 6:48am and was seen on surveillance exiting the park just before 7am, so he was in the park for roughly 10-11 minutes -- according to Google Maps, it takes around 9 minutes to bike from the Center Drive entrance at 59th St to the location he exited (77th St & Central Park W). If he was using the bike's motor and not manually pedaling he may have gotten there a bit faster, but he still would not have had a ton of time (maybe 4-5 minutes, if that) to conceal the backpack.

Did he throw the backpack in the lake? Did he hastily ditch it somewhere along the route and got lucky that a random person who doesn't watch the news/isn't aware of the backpack's significance picked it up? Did he hand the backpack over to an accomplice in the park?

 

[wibbleflea]

Every news article I have read agrees that the killer knew how to operate guns. Maybe not in the traditional way of how it is taught to LE or the military in the US but this guy knew how to operate this manual gun.

Yes! The gun needs to be cleared after every shot. He did that. And then he appears to have emptied the remaining ammo. I'm not sure that the gun ever jammed. It seems to me from the video that he knew what he was doing.

 

[Curiousobserver]

The capture of him exiting still baffles me. IF they have surveillance of him leaving the west side of central park... why don't they have more footage of where he went??? And, if they are certain he was without the backpack.... how hard did they look for it?

They haven't found the backpack, the gun, or the bike. And neither has any random NY'er

 

[TTF14]

He left Atlanta from the Greyhound bus terminal, not the airport.

This suggests to me he brought the gun from home (if he lives in Atlanta area, that is). Someone he's associated with has to have knowledge that he had that kind of unique/antique (?) gun or had access to one.

As always, JMO.

 

[eddie_van]

The capture of him exiting still baffles me. IF they have surveillance of him leaving the west side of central park... why don't they have more footage of where he went??? And, if they are certain he was without the backpack.... how hard did they look for it?

I think they're pouring over video trying to piece together where he went as we speak. It is difficult, as you can imagine.

 

[TTF14]

Why are people saying the backpack was unique? What was unique about it?

 

[indicolite22]

Focusing on the facts presented in the videos.

1. Not a professional.
2. Not a gun expert.
3. Used primitive gun. The unspent shells are misfires. The gun wasn't jamming it didn't fire.
4. The shell had to be manually ejected. (Primitive gun)
5. Expect it to be an Internet gun build.
6. Burner Phone points to accomplices. Shared room with 2 others.
7. Being on the Phone validates someone knows. If call traces to another burner phone.
8. Specialty BackPack identifiable. (someone knows what brand)

The timing had to be coordinated so possible that someone was in BT's hotel lobby.

It was well planned but not thought out.

Former LE turned content creators seem too agree that the perp isn't a pro.

 

[Arkay]

I guess so. I just think by now they would have found it, lake, land or whatever. The only reason I say this is because they do seem to be working at lightening speed. I'm gobsmacked at how quickly they've gone through camera and video footage, obtained physical evidence on the ground, located where he stayed, etc.

Maybe in the 10 days the murderer was here, he could have gone earlier to Central Park and pre-dug a hole in some inconspicuous place, then threw it in and covered it up very quickly during his escape?
It doesn’t seem likely to me but I suppose it is possible.

As to LE finding his cup and water bottle etc. in the alleyway, I am sure there are both cameras and garbage cans there. It’s a shortcut, and even though the cameras would show where he threw the garbage, LE would gather anything similar from wherever he threw it and sort it out then.

JMO

 

[TTF14]

I think they're pouring over video trying to piece together where he went as we speak. It is difficult, as you can imagine.

And backtracking.....tracking his movements in reverse since he arrived in NYC.

 

[MassGuy]

Why are people saying the backpack was unique? What was unique about it?

Relatively expensive, a bit of an unusual design, and a conspicuous color.

He might as well have carried around a sign saying he was the suspect. It made it very easy for law enforcement to follow him on surveillance.

 

[wibbleflea]

Does anyone have a link to the exact last time and place where the shooter was filmed wearing the grey, Peak Design backpack? Has that been made public? It's reported that he was seen cycling into Central Park but did he still have the grey PD backpack on at that point?

 

[fridaybaker]

No, unless they get lucky, it will take a long time to find something as small as a backpack in Central Park.

You're likely right, but two things make me surprised:

First, they seem to be working this case at warp-speed.

Second, the killer must have taken a pretty direct route in/out of the park. He wasn't there long, so wouldn't have had the opportunity to go very far at all to hide it, so unless someone picked it up and deposited elsewhere in the park, there can't be that much ground to cover.

Those things being said, I see two options: Either he had an accomplice he passed it off to (maybe with the gun?) or he threw it where it would be readily seen and it was picked up/stolen by a passerby. My inclination is that he'd at least have taken a couple of seconds to throw it in some bushes, lake, etc. If he did hide it in any way, that makes someone coming across it and stealing it less likely, considering that LE was on his tracks pronto. Right out in the open, okay, but hidden? Dunno.

We shall see.

 

[Herat]

It just keeps bugging me that United Healthcare was struggling with this huge ransomware attack that affected not only patients and their care, their prescriptions, their physicians and appointments and medical records. I know that medical practices in my area were really hurting from the inability to process and receive UHC payments and some of their employees were actually laid off.

I just wonder if someone put a HUGE target on UHC and this is just part of the harassment, funded by the $22 million UHC finally paid.

Someone with a destructive streak truly powerful to cause great distress in many lives, without any conscience.

 

[Curiousobserver]

Maybe in the 10 days the murderer was here, he could have gone earlier to Central Park and pre-dug a hole in some inconspicuous place, then threw it in and covered it up very quickly during his escape?
It doesn’t seem likely to me but I suppose it is possible.

As to LE finding his cup and water bottle etc. in the alleyway, I am sure there are both cameras and garbage cans there. It’s a shortcut, and even though the cameras would show where he threw the garbage, LE would gather anything similar from wherever he threw it and sort it out then.

JMO

Yes, you are correct- my point of amazement is that they didn't know to seal the alleyway or that there was anything to look for there for quite some time. In that time many NY'ers passed through, gawkers stood around, and the probability somebody else threw away a water bottle is pretty high. They must have really jumped on this.

 

[MassGuy]

Does anyone have a link to the exact last time and place where the shooter was filmed wearing the grey, Peak Design backpack? Has that been made public? It's reported that he was seen cycling into Central Park but did he still have the grey PD backpack on at that point?

The shooting happened at 6:44. At an unknown time (minutes later), he’s spotted on a bike with that backpack. At 6:59, he’s spotted leaving the park without that backpack.

So within 15 minutes that backpack was gone.

Excellent timeline here:

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect's timeline before, during, after the brazen murder

The man charged with murder for gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested and charged after the shooting outside a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

abcnews.go.com