Police have begun searching Central Park Lake as part of the manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin.
Divers were spotted in the water on Saturday afternoon near the Bethseda Fountain.
Investigators confirmed that the search is related to Wednesday’s ‘brazen, targeted attack’ which claimed the life of the 50-year-old insurance executive.
It comes hours after authorities found the backpack of the suspected shooter in Central Park.
The search is less than half a mile from where the backpack was discovered hidden between two rocks, close to the central park Carousel.
New York’s mayor Eric Adams said the ‘net is tightening’ around the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer as he revealed police now have a name for the suspect.
Adams told the New York Post that the cops have made significant developments with the case.
He spoke as the search for Thompson’s killer enters its fourth day but said that the authorities will not disclose the suspect’s identity at this stage.
Police have begun searching Central Park Lake as part of the manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin
Divers were spotted in the water on Saturday afternoon near the Bethseda Fountain
The search is less than half a mile from where a backpack believed to belong to the killer was recovered
‘We don’t want to release that now,’ the mayor said. ‘If you do, you are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all.
‘Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We’re going to reveal who he is and we’re going to bring him to justice.’
Thompson was gunned down on Wednesday as he headed to an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown Manhattan.
His killer fled the scene on an e-bike and was spotted heading towards Central Park.
He has baffled detectives by managing to evade capture for the last four days thanks to what appears to be a meticulously crafted disappearing act.
The suspect is understood to have arrived in New York last month via Greyhound bus which began its journey in Atlanta.
He checked into an Upper West Side hostel and was spotted at various locations around the city prior to the killing, including a Starbucks near the crime scene which he visited moments before he struck.
Brian Thompson was shot to death on Wednesday morning while on his way to the Hilton hotel in midtown
Police are struggling to identify the killer, despite the execution taking place in one of the busiest and most heavily surveilled cities in the world
Police sources said casings were found at the scene with the cryptic messages left on them
However, he paid in cash and has taken pains to ensure he could move about relatively undetected.
The public got its first glance at his face on Thursday, when the NYPD released images of him checking into his hostel where he briefly removed his balaclava to flirt with the receptionist.
Investigators believe he has since fled the state after he was spotted arriving at a Port Authority bus terminal and not seen leaving.
A motive is yet to be released, however police found bullet casings at the scene inscribed with the words ‘deny’, ‘depose’ and ‘defend’.
The messages bear similarity to Jay Feinman’s 2010 book ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’, which details ‘why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.’
