A New York Police Department The dive team searched a pond in Central Park on Saturday, looking for more clues in the manhunt for the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The divers were seen behind an area cordoned off with police tape next to the Bethesda Fountain in a body of water known as the Lake, near the park’s boathouse.
A screenshot of surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows the alleged suspect wanted in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, December 4, 2024 in downtown Manhattan. (NYPD Crime Stoppers)
Near the bandshell and about twenty feet from one of the park’s busy walkways, the crime scene still surrounded the spot where a backpack believed to belong to the shooter was found Friday.
Police have not yet recovered the weapon used in the shooting. A jacket and Monopoly money were found in the backpack, MSNBC reported.
Since the attack outside the Midtown Hilton at 6:46 a.m. Wednesday, details have come into clearer focus. The attacker entered New York City on a bus from Atlanta on November 24 and staying at an AYH Hostel on the Upper West Side.
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On the day of the shooting, investigators already knew the killer fled through Central Park, arriving there about four minutes after shooting Thompson. At 6:56 a.m., he left the park again at 77th Street on the Upper West Side, according to a detailed timeline Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny gave at a news conference Friday.
Two minutes later he was spotted again on 86th Street, still on his bicycle. At 7.04am he was seen on foot and then got into a taxi.
Police believe he is no longer in New York City because footage shows the taxi dropping him off at the Port Authority bus station. But detectives could find no footage of him leaving again. The station serves routes that could have taken him into New Jersey, north toward Boston or south toward Philadelphia and Washington, DC
An area in Central Park near Rumsey Playfield in New York, NY, Saturday, December 4, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
The NYPD has been Search Central Park since Wednesday.
“It’s huge, and it’s dense,” former NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro said of Central Park. “My question about that was did they use dogs (to find the backpack).”
The NYPD first announced that it was offering $10,000 for information leading to the suspect’s arrest and conviction. The FBI said late Friday it is offering up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
