Police arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.
The 26-year-old man had a gun believed to be the one used in the killing and writings suggesting his anger with corporate America, police officials said. He was taken into custody after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
Police identified the suspect as Luigi Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address is in Honolulu, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.
Mangione was charged with weapons, forgery and other charges in Pennsylvania on Monday. He was arraigned and ordered held without bail.
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A three-page, handwritten document found in Mangione’s possession included a line in which he claimed to have acted alone, according to a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official.
It also had a line that said, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.” — By Michael R. Sisak
Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Mangione, according to an online court docket. He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media late Monday by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
“They were very detailed, and everything we have is going to be turned over to NYPD,” Altoona Deputy Chief of Police Derek Swope told The Associated Press.
He did not characterize the writings further.
“The customer recognized, notified an employee and wanted someone to check it out further,” said Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police.
He likely “was in a variety of locations across the state,” Bivens said.
“Based on everything we have seen, he was very careful with trying to stay low profile, avoid cameras — not all that successfully in some cases, but that was certainly the effort he was making," Bivens said. “He took steps to try and avoid detection with some of the electronic devices as well.”
Officer Tyler Frye, who has only been on the job for about six months, and a fellow officer responded to the McDonald’s where the suspect was spotted.
They asked him to pull his blue medical mask down and “recognized him immediately” Frye said. “We didn’t even think twice about it, we knew that was our guy.”
Frye said “it feels good to get a guy like that off the street, especially starting my career this way, it feels great.”
Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was carrying a passport and $10,000 in cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency.
Mangione disputed the amount.
He was also found with a box of masks, the prosecutor said.
“A Pennsylvania resident saw something early this morning and said something to our local police,” Shapiro said.
“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” the Democrat continued. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”
Altoona’s Deputy Chief Derek Swope opens the news conference. At least a half-dozen men in NYPD jackets are lined up behind the microphones, along with a Pennsylvania state trooper and other law enforcement personnel.
Asked if he needed a public defender, he asked if he could “answer that at a future date.”
After Mangione provided his real name and birth date, he was taken into custody on charges of forgery and false identification to law enforcement, court documents say.
In his backpack, police found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed black silencer, the papers say.
The pistol had a metal slide and plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel. It had one loaded Glock magazine with six 9 mm full metal jacket rounds and one loose 9 mm hollow-point round.
According to court documents, Mangione was sitting at a table in the rear of the McDonalds wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a silver laptop computer and had a backpack on the floor.
When he pulled down his mask, Altoona police officers “immediately recognized him as the suspect” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the documents say.
Asked for identification, Mangione provided officers with a fake ID — a New Jersey driver’s license bearing another name and the incorrect date of birth.
When an officer asked if he’d been to New York recently, he “became quiet and started to shake,” according to a criminal complaint based on police accounts of the arrest.
A police criminal complaint charged him with forgery, carrying firearms without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing an instrument of crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.
Video posted on the social platform X shows a handcuffed Mangione arriving at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
For example, it took about 10 months to extradite a man charged with stabbing two workers at the Museum of Modern Art in 2022.
The suspect, Gary Cabana, was also arrested in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with setting his Philadelphia hotel room on fire. Cabana was sent back to New York after he pleaded guilty to an arson charge in Pennsylvania.
Manhattan prosecutors could seek to expedite the process by indicting Mangione for Thompson’s killing while he’s still in custody of Pennsylvania authorities. They could then obtain what’s known as a supreme court warrant or fugitive warrant to get him back to New York.
Freddie Leatherbury hasn’t spoken to Mangione since they graduated in 2016 from Gilman School in Maryland. He said Mangione was a smart, friendly and athletic student who came from a wealthy family, even by the private school’s standards.
“Quite honestly, he had everything going for him,” Leatherbury said.
Leatherbury said he was stunned when a friend shared the news of their former classmate’s arrest.
“He does not seem like the kind of guy to do this based on everything I’d known about him in high school,” Leatherbury said.
Luigi Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of Nick Mangione Sr., according to a 2008 obituary.
Mangione Sr. grew up poor in Baltimore’s Little Italy and rose after his World War II naval service to become a millionaire real estate developer and philanthropist, according to a 1995 profile by the Baltimore Sun. He and his wife Mary Cuba Mangione, who died in 2023, directed their philanthropy through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating her death. They donated to a variety of causes, ranging from Catholic organizations to higher education to the arts.
A man who answered the door to the office of the Mangione Family Foundation declined to comment Monday evening.
Mangione Sr. was known for Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione Sr. prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report.
The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday afternoon, Baltimore County police officers had blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. A swarm of reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance.
“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 spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group said Monday. “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.”
In an email to parents and alumni, Gilman headmaster Henry P.A. Smyth said it “recently” learned that Mangione, a 2016 graduate, was arrested in the CEO’s killing.
“We do not have any information other than what is being reported in the news,” Smyth wrote. “This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.”
Mangione, a high school valedictorian from a Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday.
He had learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication.
His posts also suggest that he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, the New Jersey shore and other destinations.
Altoona police say officers were dispatched to a McDonald’s on Monday morning in response to reports of a male matching the description of the man wanted in connection with the United Healthcare CEO’s killing in New York City.
In a news release, police say officers made contact with the man, who was then arrested on unrelated charges. The Altoona Police Department says it’s cooperating with local, state, and federal agencies.
“This just happened this morning. We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said.
“And at some point we’ll work out through extradition to bring him back to New York to face charges here, working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
“As of right now, the information we’re getting from Altoona is that the gun appears to be a ghost gun that may have been made on a 3D printer, capable of firing a 9 mm round,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.
The document suggested the suspect had “ill will toward corporate America,” police added.
Mangione, 26, was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address in Honolulu, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.
Police have arrested a 26-year-old with a weapon “consistent with” the gun used in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, New York City’s police commissioner says.
Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at Manhattan hotel. Thompson had traveled from Minnesota for the event.
A man being questioned Monday in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had writings that appeared to be critical of the health insurance industry, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The man also had a gun thought to be similar to the one used in the killing, the official said.
Police apprehended the man after receiving a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s near Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 233 miles (375 kilometers) west of New York City, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Along with the gun, police found a silencer and fake IDs, according to the official.
— Michael R. Sisak
That’s also according to the law enforcement official.
— Michael R. Sisak
That’s according to a law enforcement official.
— Michael R. Sisak