NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: NYPD Seeks Help in UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting, Mayor Adams Pushes Tax Cuts, Fencing Legend Remembered, and Chelsea’s Toy Duck Mystery Solved

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

The NYPD has called in reinforcements to investigate the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed in a shooting outside a Midtown hotel Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams is proposing tax cuts to benefit over 500,000 working-class New Yorkers. Also, Peter Westbrook, a trailblazer in fencing and founder of a program for marginalized youth, has died at 72. Finally, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen solves the mystery of Chelsea’s magnetic ducks.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jared Marcel. The NYPD has brought in detectives from other precincts to help investigate the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson was shot and killed Wednesday morning outside the Midtown Hilton Hotel, where his company was hosting his annual investor conference. The NYPD says the shooting appears to be a targeted attack by someone proficient in using. a gun. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the gunman allowed several pedestrians to pass before firing multiple shots, hitting Thompson in the back and leg. Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack.

The NYPD is asking for the public's help to find the shooter and have increased the crime stoppers' reward to $10,000. Police say the gunman was last seen on video walking away and riding a city bike into Central Park, and that the motive for the shooting is unknown. For the latest updates on this developing story, check out our new site Gothamist. Mayor Eric Adams is pushing Albany for income tax cuts. He says it'll put $63 million back in the pockets

of more than half a million working-class New Yorkers. We can't bring down the cost of bread, but we can give you some bread so that you can pay for the bills and the necessities that you have. But the mayor who is running for re-election doesn't actually have the power to enact the tax cut. State lawmakers will have to introduce it in the next legislative session starting next month and pass it as part of the state budget. Barrier-breaking fencer Peter Westbrook has died.

He grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and made history as the first African-American and Asian-American to win an Olympic medal in fencing, a sport often associated with European traditions. Westbrook also founded the Peter Westbrook Foundation in Manhattan, which helps young people from marginalized communities get into fencing. One of its alumni, Lawrence Krugs from Queens, recently won an Olympic medal herself. Peter Westbrook was 72. Up next, a mystery in Chelsea involving tiny magnetic ducks has finally been solved.

That story after the break. Let's make to everything now. For the past year, Tiny Magnetic. magnetic ducks and other small plastic creatures have been popping up on railings, poles, and fences around Chelsea. Kids in the neighborhood have turned it into a trading craze, but the mystery of who's been leaving them has stumped everyone. Until now, WNYC's Stevenesson cracks the case. Stop by any playground in Chelsea and ask kids if they know about these little ducks and magnetic toys. I know a lot about them. Like, I have a lot of rare ones. I have some that they're a

only like free out of three of them in the whole school or something. That's nine-year-old Faisal Alderbos. As soon as other kids at the Clement Clark Moore Park hear us talking about the mysterious magnetic toys, a herd comes storming over. There's like hundreds. There's like hundreds of them on the street. Ten-year-old Ada says she's seen hundreds in recent months. It's kind of like a fun thing of just walking around in the city.

It's like a scavenger on it, but not plans, really. You're just waiting for your adult to get off the phone, you're bored, so you're just looking around and then you spot them. Her friend Lulu, who's also 10, likes how they just seem to appear randomly. It's like really fun and also just having, just like seeing one is like kind of also have like a mystery because they're just left around town. I've been hunting for this mysterious person leaving the ducks since last year when I got a tip from a local parent that the person I should look for is an older man named Brian.

He dresses impeccably well and frequently goes to one coffee shop. So I left my business card there. I left lots of cards and stopped by frequently, but I never caught him. And every barista told me he doesn't want to talk. It turns out I should have had my eye out for another person. How's it going? Good. How are you? Good. Good to meet you.

That's J.J. Cirillo. Otherwise known as the duck person. We meet in Chelsea. a recent afternoon. Surillo is 52 years old, has close-cropped hair, dark sunglasses. She lives in Inwood Park and is a dog walker in Chelsea. But is she connected to Brian? Brian's like the genius. Like you were looking for Brian. He's very elusive. He's kind of like Bigfoot. Turns out, JJ does know Brian. Before COVID, I would find these Lego men, magnets on the rails. And I would get so excited and happy once I'd

found them. I was like, oh my God. And then I would get home and I would put it on my fridge and I would show my wife and she was like, whatever. Like she thinks I'm nuts. So one day, Cerillo's out on the streets walking her client's dogs. And I see this really meticulously dressed man. Catches my eye and I'm just watching him and I see him and then as he's walking, he like takes a little bend down and he sticks something to one of the rails. And I look and there it was. It was a Lego. But she still doesn't talk to him. Then cover. it hits, and she's away from the neighborhood for a while. Fast forward to last December. I ran into him, and what he was doing is he was putting up little ducks with Santa Claus hats on.

And he had a handful of them, and I thought, wow, let me approach him and see what's going on. And I was like, are you the duck guy? Surillo says he admitted, yeah, it was him. And I said, did you ever do Legos? He said, yes, but they got too expensive, so that's why I went to the ducks. Cirillo thought it was brilliant, but could reach so many more people. From there, I decided to go on a much larger scale and kind of like just filled this whole Chelsea with ducks everywhere. The pocket of her puffy jacket is bulging with magnetic ducks and other creatures. As we walk around Chelsea, she casually fishes out one toy and stealthily sticks it to a stop sign, a railing and one in front of the Highline Hotel.

I stick them in there so that people really have to look to. find them. Like Brian before her, Cirillo glues magnets to the bottom of the toys by hand. I spend a lot of my time on weekends just making ducks. It helps me to stay kind of centered and balanced and quiet. It just quiet as my mind. She estimates since last year when she started, she's dropped off nearly 30,000 ducks and other animals. The only thing I don't like about this venture is as much I enjoy it, it's a very expensive venture. And I guess if I had anything, it would be just something like a little duck fund. You know, go duck me.

Not even to make money. It's more about breaking even so that I could buy more ducks. Like any good mystery, once one case is solved, another one walks in the door. Earlier this month, a red box the size of a small briefcase, fixed to a no parking sign on 10th Avenue near 23rd Street appeared. JJ says she didn't do it. I go to check it out. And run into six-year-old Lolo and her eight-year-old sister Blake,

devoted duck collectors who are also seeing the box for the first time. Inside there are three levels full of magnetic ducks. On the inside of the small door, it reads, Give a duck, take a duck. Oh, you're going to put little fish in? No, since we're going to take them. No, I'm going to trade. I'm going to take some ducks.

The new. Duck Library is welcome news to Blake, who is not a duck hoarder by nature. On a family vacation to Rome this summer, she wanted to spread the good vibes and brought a pile of ducks to leave in the Italian capital. And now, she wants to switch roles. I decided to make my own magnets on little evases like these ones. Pumpkin ones, there's a Dirker pumpkin, and there's egg corns. She may leave some in the new duck library.

And then maybe in winter I'll get like a snowman in the pocket or something. And then I hide them around like the duckies. But there are still lingering questions. Who made this, though? Good question, Blake. If it wasn't JJ, was it Brian? And could I finally track him down? Brian did eventually return my call.

He insisted he wants to remain anonymous and didn't want to do a taped interview. but he did confirm he was the one who installed the Duck Library just to find a new way to bring joy and spread whimsy. Case closed. Wait, I took one. I put it out of. That's WNYC's Stephen Nesson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jared Marcel. See you tomorrow.