According to reports, a backpack officers found during the hunt for the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson did not contain the murder weapon.
Authorities searching for the person responsible for shooting Thompson in the early hours of Wednesday morning found the backpack in Central Park on Friday.
Sources have now said this Bloomberg that only a jacket was found in the backpack, and would not comment on whether it was the same one seen on surveillance footage.
After discovery on Friday evening, the backpack was taken to a forensic laboratory for examination.
The bag was found by police during their second visit to the park and was placed between boulders just south of the park carousel.
On Saturday, footage 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 “brutal, targeted attack” that killed the 50-year-old father of two.
New York Mayor Eric Adams also said the “net is tightening” for his killer The New York Post that officers now have a name for the suspect.
The bag was found by police during their second visit to the park and was placed between boulders just south of the park carousel.
The 50-year-old father of two was shot earlier this week as images of his murder circulated on social media amid an ongoing manhunt for his killer
He spoke as the search for Thompson’s killer enters its fourth day, but said authorities will not reveal the suspect’s identity at this stage.
“We don’t want to release that right now,” he said. ‘If you do that, you are essentially giving a tip to the person we are looking for and we absolutely do not want to give that person the upper hand.
‘Let him continue to believe that he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We are going to reveal who he is and we are going to bring him to justice.”
On Friday One night, the NYPD provided a clearer picture of the killer’s movements after killing Thompson.
They say he entered the park at 6:48 a.m. after the shooting and was then seen leaving 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 leaving the park while still riding his bicycle.
At 7:04 a.m., he then got into a taxi at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and drove north.
At 7:30 a.m. he had arrived at the Port Authority bus station in the north of the city, where he reportedly boarded a bus and left the city.
New images emerged on Friday evening in the minutes after the fatal shooting in which the suspect flew across 6th Avenue on his electric bicycle.
Despite the lack of online sleuthing, the New York Police Department has released images of the suspect in the case – one of which shows him smiling
The images, obtained by NewsNationshowed a new corner of his escape path and had him cross the street into the early morning darkness of Central Park. On Thursday, officials said the person had arrived in the city on a bus from Atlanta, Georgia, in late November and had been staying at a hostel on the Upper West Side.
It was at the hostel that a flirtatious conversation with a hostel worker gave police officers their first look at the killer, when he was asked to lower his mask.
Prior to the murder, he was caught on surveillance cameras at a Starbucks near the Hilton Hotel, where he shot Thompson.
He is said to have purchased two nutrition bars from the chain, in addition to a bottle of water found at the scene.
The image of the backpack found 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 manhunt for him continued Friday. A cop is seen here in Central Park on Friday evening
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny has said they believe the killer is a disgruntled ex-employee or angry client.
A motive has yet to be released, with police finding bullet casings with the words ‘deny’, ‘depose’ and ‘delay’ at the scene.
The messages bear similarity to Jay Feinman’s 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend,” which describes “why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”
On Friday evening, the FBI announced they were also cooperating in the investigation into the killer, offering $50,000 for any information leading to a conviction.