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Popular Internet Sleuths Deny NYPD’s Request to Track Down CEO Shooter. WTF?

Greggory W. Morris
3 min readDec 7, 2024

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Originally published at https://www.alternet.org on December 7, 2024

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is crowd-sourcing their investigation into the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to the general public after two days with no positive ID on the shooter. But they may not get much help from the internet, according to multiple popular TikTok sleuths.

NBC News reported that law enforcement is banking on the American public helping them identify the man seen in new photos released this week, which show the alleged assassin lowering his mask while flirting with a hostel concierge. Those are currently the only photos of the alleged killer in which his mask isn’t concealing his face, and law enforcement veterans have called them a “turning point” in the investigation.

But Savannah Sparks — who has 1.3 million TikTok followers and is known for helping track down perpetrators of racist and hateful attacks — was unequivocal in her refusal to help find Thompson’s murderer. Thompson told NBC she was “pretty apathetic” about the ongoing manhunt, and that her impression of the online sleuthing community’s current mood was: “[C]oncepts of thoughts and prayers.”

{READ MORE: ‘Turning point’: New photos released of alleged shooter in health insurance CEO’s slaying}

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Greggory W. Morris
Greggory W. Morris

Written by Greggory W. Morris

Award Winning Assistant J-Professor, Hunter College/CUNY. Author, Writer. Blogs at blog.hunterword.com. Using Medium.com to test-drive writing projects.

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