US police identified Luigi Mangione as the suspect in the shooting death of insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York and are questioning the young man.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 310 miles west of New York, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on December 9. Mangione went to a McDonald’s and was identified by employees as the gunman in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
According to Ms. Tisch, Mangione was carrying a homemade gun and a silencer, as well as clothing and a bandana similar to the one used by the gunman during the crime. Joseph Kenny, chief investigator of the New York Police Department (NYPD), said the gun could have been manufactured using a 3D printer.
Altoona police questioned Mangione on the evening of December 9 and booked him into Blair County Court. Pennsylvania authorities have filed five charges against Mangione, including two counts of forgery, carrying a firearm illegally, making false statements to authorities and possessing “tools of crime.”
Mangione could then be extradited to New York to face charges related to Mr Thompson’s murder.
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Police take Luigi Mangione to Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania for preliminary questioning. Video: Fox News
Mangione, from Towson, Maryland, was carrying false documents, including a fake identification card that matched the one the gunman used to book a motel room in Manhattan.
Police also found a handwritten note that “showed both the suspect’s motivations and his mindset,” Ms. Tisch said. The document did not list specific targets, but Mangione “had malice toward American business,” Mr. Kenny added.
Media reports show that Mangione graduated from a private all-boys school in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2016. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, in 2020, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science.
Stanford University, California, said Mangione served as the school’s pre-college program lead advisor from May to September 2019. He was responsible for designing lesson plans and teaching artificial intelligence to high school students attending Stanford’s summer school.
Mangione’s most recent residence was in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Luigi Mangione at the Altoona police station, Pennsylvania. Photo: Fox News
Mr. Thompson, 50, has worked at UnitedHealth Group since 2004 and became CEO of UnitedHealthcare in 2021. UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, is currently ranked 5th in the Fortune 500, a ranking of the 500 largest companies in the United States based on total annual revenue.
Thompson was shot on the morning of December 4 in Midtown Manhattan, New York, while on his way to the New York Hilton hotel to attend the company’s annual investor conference. The NYPD said the suspect waited near the hotel for about 10 minutes in the cold.
When Thompson appeared, the suspect approached and fired several shots from a distance of 6 meters. Thompson was shot in the chest and was taken to the hospital in critical condition but did not survive.
Luigi Mangione, suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York