An individual of curiosity needed for questioning within the lethal taking pictures of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is believed to have left New York Metropolis, police stated Friday. In the meantime, investigators present in Central Park what’s believed to be the suspected gunman’s backpack, legislation enforcement officers instructed CBS Information.
The officers instructed CBS Information it isn’t clear what the backpack contained. The New York Police Division stated the backpack was being analyzed to find out if it belonged to the suspect, who’s believed to have disposed of his backpack in Central Park as he was fleeing Wednesday’s taking pictures in midtown Manhattan.
CBS Information obtained photographs of the backpack from the NYPD Friday night time.
CBS Information
Police haven’t named a suspect within the investigation, however investigators are in search of an individual of curiosity who’s needed for questioning within the case. The particular person of curiosity might have boarded a bus at a Manhattan bus terminal certain for Atlanta, an individual aware of the matter instructed CBS Information. Joseph Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, instructed reporters Friday that investigators do not know what bus the person might have taken.
“We now have him in a taxicab, and the taxicab takes him as much as 178th Road and Broadway, which as we all know is a Port Authority bus heart,” Kenny instructed CNN. “These buses are interstate buses. That is why we imagine he might have left New York Metropolis.”
The Atlanta Police Division stated that they had been contacted by the NYPD and might be offering help as wanted with the manhunt now increasing past New York Metropolis. Investigators had been following leads in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The NYPD has requested about 80 main police departments throughout the U.S. for help on the case, senior officers instructed CBS Information.
The FBI, which can be helping the NYPD with the investigation, introduced a $50,000 reward Friday night time for data resulting in an arrest within the case.
Days earlier than the taking pictures, the particular person of curiosity took a bus that had originated in Atlanta to New York Metropolis, an individual briefed on the investigation confirmed to CBS Information on Thursday. It’s unclear when the particular person of curiosity acquired on the bus, whether or not it was in Atlanta, or on one other cease alongside the way in which.
When the particular person was in New York Metropolis, he used a pretend ID with a pretend title to examine in to Hostelling Worldwide New York Metropolis, a hostel on Amsterdam Avenue, within the Higher West Facet neighborhood of Manhattan, in response to a legislation enforcement official with information of the investigation. The official stated police imagine the title on the ID was made up and doesn’t belong to anybody else.
The NYPD shared two photos Thursday displaying the particular person on the hostel. They didn’t say when the photographs had been taken.
NYPD
The photographs had been taken together with his masks pulled down as he talked to a girl on the entrance desk. New York police interviewed the girl, who instructed officers she requested to “see his fairly smile,” a high-ranking supply instructed CBS Information New York.
“They had been having a flirtatious second and he pulls it down and he offers a giant smile and that one casual second between two human beings stays at this second essentially the most vital clue up to now on this entire case,” stated John Miller, former NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism.
Kenny instructed reporters that the particular person of curiosity was seen on safety video arriving on the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Nov. 24.
Police had been in a position to determine him with surveillance video of him strolling by means of the terminal, police sources with direct information of the investigation beforehand instructed CBS Information. That video was used to hint him to a Greyhound bus.
From the Port Authority, he took a cab to the neighborhood of the Hilton Midtown lodge — close to which the deadly taking pictures of Thompson occurred on Dec. 4 — and was there for about half-hour. He then took a cab to the hostel, Kenny stated. He briefly checked out of the hostel on Nov. 29, Kenny stated, however then checked again in on Nov. 30.
Bus riders who pay money for a ticket aren’t required to indicate a sound ID. Port Authority police is working with Greyhound to find out if the particular person of curiosity offered ID at any level, and they’re investigating at which level he bought the ticket between Atlanta and New York.
