Authorities suspect the assassin who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson as divers searched Central Park waters for the murder weapon Saturday and investigators headed to Atlanta for footage of the suspect. The Post reported that it was approaching.
As the manhunt for Thompson’s killer entered its fourth day, Mayor Adams declared that police were inching closer to making an arrest.
“The net is getting tighter,” Mayor Adams told reporters Saturday at the Police Athletic League’s holiday party in Harlem.
Police divers were searching for guns in the lake near the Central Park Boathouse, focusing on the foundations of buildings and near the fountain.
It is unclear if anything was recovered.
Meanwhile, a jacket was in the backpack the killer was carrying, law enforcement officials said Saturday. It is unclear whether this is the jacket the suspect was wearing.
NewsNationNow reports that newly obtained security video also appears to show the suspect carrying a backpack and riding an electric bicycle up Sixth Avenue toward Central Park shortly after the murder.
Mayor Adams declined to say when asked at the Harlem event whether investigators already had the suspect’s name.
“I don’t want to put it out there right now,” Adams said. “If we do that, we’re basically tipping the guy who’s looking, and we’re not giving him any advantage at all. Let him continue to believe that he can hide behind a mask. Please expose his face. We will reveal who he is and bring him to justice.”
The mayor also praised the “tri-state law enforcement partnership” for the investigation so far.
“And how they were able to retrace his footsteps to recover evidence, some of it known and some unknown, but the net is getting tighter. We are going to bring this person to justice,” Adams said.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down on the sidewalk Wednesday as he approached an investor event at the Midtown Hilton without any security.
Officials said the assassin chased the murder, which was caught on camera, before jumping on his bike and racing up Sixth Avenue, into Central Park and then disappearing.
Police also recovered footage of a man coming out the other side on a bicycle without a backpack.
Police sources said the bus the suspect was believed to have taken to the city had left Atlanta, and police were also searching for footage from there.
The gunman’s motive was not immediately known, but investigators found bullets with the words “denial,” “defense,” and “released” written on them at the scene outside the hotel.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson, CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a luxury midtown hotel on Wednesday, police said. The methodical killer used a silenced gun outside the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue. The gunman fired multiple shots at Thompson, striking him in the back and right calf, before fleeing on foot. New York City police release new photo of a hooded suspect standing in front of a Starbucks counter at West 56th Street and Sixth Avenue, just minutes from the Hilton Hotel where Thompson, 50, was shot and killed. did. Mr. Thompson was appointed CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004 and was one of several senior executives at the company targeted by the Justice Department’s investigation. Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said she had received threats before her husband was killed. The New York City Police Department is investigating whether live bullets or shell casings left behind by a masked assassin may have been engraved with messages that appear to include the words “denial,” “resign,” and “defense.”
Follow the Post’s live updates on news about Brian Thompson’s murder.
“Tons” of officers conducted a grid search of the vast park and eventually found the bag on Friday.
Since the killing, police have released surveillance footage of the suspect smiling murderously at staff at an Upper West Side youth hostel.
Officials said officers also reviewed hundreds of tips from the public.
“Some of these people are not going to go home because we’re going to bring this person to justice,” Adams said of investigators. “We want to make sure that this person is removed not only from the streets of New York, but from the streets of all of America.”
