A suspect in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday after an intense days-long manhunt, and was arraigned on gun charges and other offenses.
Officials said Luigi Mangione, 26, was taken into custody by police in Altoona, Pa., about 233 miles (375 km) west of New York City, on Monday morning, after he was recognized by an employee of a local McDonald’s who then called local police.
“Officers immediately recognized him as the suspect in the New York City shooting” after Mangione was asked to remove his facemask in the restaurant, Altoona Police Deputy Chief Derek Swope said at a news conference late Monday, after Mangione was arraigned.
Mangione — who was charged with weapons, forgery and other charges in Pennsylvania — began shaking nervously when police asked if he had been in New York recently, Swope told reporters.
“The suspect didn’t have to say a lot after that question to show that he was very nervous at that point,” Swope said.
A judge ordered Mangione to be held without bail.
Mangione was found with a firearm and a suppressor, another name for a silencer, that New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said earlier Monday was “consistent” with the weapon police believe was used in the fatal shooting.
Police in New York City and Altoona said Mangione was also found with multiple false identification cards. Tisch said one of the ID cards matched the ID used by the suspect to check into a hostel in Manhattan before the shooting.
Officials hailed the McDonald’s employee’s quick thinking and credited the wide distribution of surveillance images of a person of interest that led to Mangione’s arrest.
“How did we do it? Good old-fashioned police work,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a separate press conference earlier Monday.
“We sent (the photos) across the country, and someone, a McDonald’s employee, did something we ask every American to do: if you see something, say something — but most importantly, do something. And they did.”
Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday in what police said was a “brazen, targeted” attack as he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference, police said.
The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching the executive from behind and opening fire, according to police. He used a 9 mm pistol that police said resembled the guns farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise.
“Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” a UnitedHealth Group spokesperson told Global News in a statement.
“We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday that “a ghost gun capable of firing a 9 mm round” was found on Mangione. He said the gun may have been created with a 3D printer.
Tisch said police who arrested Mangione also recovered a three-page handwritten document “that speaks to both (his) motivation and mindset.”
Kenny said based on the document, police believe Mangione had “some ill will toward corporate America,” but did not provide further details on whether UnitedHealthcare or health insurers were specifically mentioned.
Ammunition found near Thompson’s body bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics, U.S. media reported last week citing law enforcement sources.
Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland with ties to San Francisco, and his last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. He had no prior arrest history in New York, and may have attended college in Pennsylvania.
Mangione was “sitting there eating” in the McDonald’s when the employee identified him, Kenny added.
Authorities will work to extradite Mangione from Pennsylvania, where he’s facing local charges for the firearm and false IDs found on him, to potentially face charges related to Thompson’s killing, Kenny said.
He said investigators don’t believe anyone helped Mangione in either tracking Thompson’s movements before the shooting or his alleged escape from New York City afterwards, but that the investigation is ongoing.
“We’re not stopping today,” Kenny said.
In the days since the shooting, police turned to the public for help by releasing a collection of photos and video — including footage of the attack, as well as images of an individual described by NYPD as a person of interest at a Starbucks beforehand.
Photos taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side showed the person police called a suspect in the investigation grinning after removing his mask, police said.
On Friday, police found a backpack in the park that they say the killer discarded as he fled from the crime scene to an uptown bus station, where they believe he left the city on a bus.
On Monday, before reports of Mangione’s arrest emerged, K-9 units sniffed leaf-covered planters between walking paths in Central Park near where police found the shooter’s backpack. Farther along the path that police suspect he took through the park after the shooting, scuba divers geared up and started searching a pond for the third straight day.
Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, investigators say the shooter fled into Central Park on a bicycle, emerged from the park without his backpack and then ditched the bicycle.
He then walked a couple blocks and got into a taxi, arriving at at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is near the northern tip of Manhattan and offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, police officials said last week.
The FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a US$50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to US$10,000 that the NYPD has offered. Police say they believe the shooter acted alone.
Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of a person of interest that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue mask.
On Monday, a small section of Central Park was cordoned off with blue and white police tape, giving divers an area to change and get in the water.
At one point, a group of about 30 French-speaking tourists followed a guide down a path, but they couldn’t go any further because of the police tape. Before turning back, many of them whipped out their phones to snap a photo of the divers.
—with files from the Associated Press and Reuters
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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