‘The net is tightening’ on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s suspected killer, NYC Mayor Adams says
Authorities are closing in on the assassin who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson — as divers searched the waters of Central Park for the murder weapon Saturday and investigators traveled to Atlanta seeking video of the suspect, The Post has learned.
As the manhunt for Thompson’s killer entered its fourth day, Mayor Adams declared police were inching closer to an arrest.
“The net is tightening,” Mayor Adams told reporters at a Police Athletic League holiday party in Harlem on Saturday.
Police divers were searching for the gun in the lake near the Central Park Boathouse, focusing on an area near the structure’s foundation and near the fountain, sources said.
It’s unclear if anything was recovered.
Meanwhile, the backpack the killer wore contained a jacket, law enforcement sources revealed Saturday. It’s unclear if it’s the jacket worn by the killer.
Newly obtained security video also appears to show the suspect wearing the backpack and riding up Sixth Avenue and into Central Park on an electric bike shortly after the murder, NewsNationNow reported.
Mayor Adams declined to say whether investigators already had the suspect’s name when asked at a Harlem event.
“We don’t want to release that now,” Adams said. “If we do, we 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.”
The mayor also commended the “tri-state law enforcement partnership” for the investigation so far.
“And the manner in which they were able to follow his footsteps to recover evidence – some of it is known, some of it is unknown – but the net is tightening and we’re going to bring this person to justice,“ Adams said.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down on a sidewalk as he approached an investor event at the Hilton in Midtown without any security detail Wednesday.
The assassin ran after the caught-on-camera killing, and then jumped on a bike and rode up 6th Avenue and into Central Park before disappearing, officials said.
Police also recovered video of him coming out from the other side on the bike, without the backpack.
The bus the killer was believed to have taken to the city originated in Atlanta and cops were searching for video there as well, police sources said.
The killer’s motive wasn’t immediately known but investigators found bullets with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on them at the scene outside the hotel.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had been getting threats before he was killed.
- Thompson’s shooting led to sick support online, and even spurred a tasteless lookalike competition in NYC.
- A person of interest has been nabbed by police officers inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.
- The suspect has been identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, originally from Towson, Md. He’s an Ivy League graduate who hated the medical community.
Follow along with The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding Brian Thompson’s murder.
“Tons” of cops performed a grid search on the sprawling park and eventually found the bag Friday.
Since the killing, police have released surveillance of the suspect flashing a killer smile at a clerk at an Upper West Side youth hostel.
Police officers have also been through hundreds of tips from the public, officials said.
“Some of these guys have not gone home because we’re going to bring this person to justice,” Adams said of investigators. “We want to make sure this person is removed off the streets of America not only off the streets of New York.”