UnitedHealthcare CEO assassination: Police divers scour pond in Central Park near killer’s suspected backpack

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Police divers in Central Park during the manhunt for CEO’s killer

The NYPD SCUBA unit searched a pond in Central Park Saturday during the investigation into the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Credit: Peter Gerber)

A New York Police Department dive team trawled a Central Park pond Saturday, searching for more leads in the manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin.  

The divers were seen behind an area cordoned off with police tape beside Bethesda Fountain in a body of water known as the Lake near the park’s boathouse.

A screenshot from surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows the alleged suspect wanted in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (NYPD Crime Stoppers)

Near the bandshell and about 20 feet from one of the park’s crowded walkways, crime scene tape still surrounded the spot where a backpack believed to belong to the shooter was found Friday. 

Police have yet to recover the weapon used in the shooting. A jacket and Monopoly money were found inside the backpack, MSNBC reported. 

Since the attack outside the Hilton Midtown at 6:46 a.m. Wednesday, details have come more clearly into focus. The assailant arrived in New York City on a bus from Atlanta Nov. 24 and stayed at an AYH Hostel on the Upper West Side.

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  Members of the NYPD’s SCUBA team Saturday, Dec. 7, in Central Park, a short walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin is believed to have left his backpack. (Peter Gerber/Fox News)

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  A group of NYPD officers near Bethesda Fountain Saturday, Dec. 7, around 3 p.m. (Peter Gerber/Fox News Digital)

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  Police tape outside Central Park’s boathouse.  (Peter Gerber/Fox News Digital)

The day of the shooting, investigators already knew that the assassin fled through Central Park, getting there about four minutes after shooting Thompson. At 6:56 a.m., he exited the park again at 77th Street on the Upper West Side, according to a detailed timeline given by Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny at a press conference Friday.

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He was spotted again on 86th Street, still on the bicycle, two minutes later. At 7:04 a.m., he was seen on foot, then getting into a taxi cab. 

Police believe he is no longer in New York City because footage showed the cab dropping him off at Port Authority bus station. But detectives could not find footage of him leaving again. The station serves routes that could have taken him to New Jersey, north toward Boston or south toward Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

An area in Central Park near Rumsey Playfield in New York, N.Y., Saturday, Dec. 4, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

The NYPD has been searching Central Park since Wednesday. 

“It’s huge, and it’s dense,” former NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro said of Central Park. “My question on that was if they used dogs [to find the backpack].”

The NYPD first announced that $10,000 was being offered for information leading to the suspect’s arrest and conviction. The FBI said late Friday it was offering up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

Christina Coulter is a U.S. and World reporter for Fox News Digital. Email story tips to christina.coulter@fox.com.