ALTOONA, Pa. – After UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was gunned down on a New York sidewalk, police looked for the masked gunman with canine, drones and scuba divers. Officers used the town’s muscular surveillance system. Investigators analyzed DNA samples, fingerprints and web addresses. Police went door-to-door on the lookout for witnesses.
When an arrest got here five days later, these sprawling investigative efforts shared credit score with an alert civilian’s instincts. A Pennsylvania McDonald’s buyer seen one other patron who resembled the person within the indirect security-camera photographs that New York police had publicized.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland actual property household, was arrested Monday within the killing of Brian Thompson, who headed one of many United States’ largest medical insurance coverage firms.
He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, the place he was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and offering false identification to police. By late night, prosecutors in Manhattan had added a cost of homicide, in accordance with an internet court docket docket. He is anticipated to be extradited to New York ultimately.
It’s unclear whether or not Mangione has an lawyer who can touch upon the allegations. Requested at Monday’s arraignment whether or not he wanted a public defender, Mangione requested whether or not he may “reply that at a future date.”
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after the McDonald’s buyer acknowledged him and notified an worker, authorities mentioned. Police in Altoona, about 233 miles (375 kilometers) west of New York Metropolis, have been quickly summoned.
They arrived to seek out Mangione sitting at a desk at the back of the restaurant, sporting a blue medical masks and a laptop computer, in accordance with a Pennsylvania police prison criticism.
He initially gave them a pretend ID, however when an officer requested Mangione whether or not he’d been to New York not too long ago, he “grew to become quiet and began to shake,” the criticism says.
When he pulled his masks down at officers’ request, “we knew that was our man,” rookie Officer Tyler Frye mentioned at a information convention in Hollidaysburg.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned at a Manhattan information convention that Mangione was carrying a gun just like the one used to kill Thompson and the identical pretend ID the shooter had used to test right into a New York hostel, together with a passport and different fraudulent IDs.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny mentioned Mangione additionally had a three-page, handwritten doc that reveals “some sick will towards company America.”
A legislation enforcement official who wasn’t licensed to debate the investigation publicly and spoke with The Related Press on situation of anonymity mentioned the doc included a line during which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
“To the Feds, I’ll preserve this quick, as a result of I do respect what you do for our nation. To avoid wasting you a prolonged investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anybody,” the doc mentioned, in accordance with the official.
It additionally had a line that mentioned, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas however it needed to be performed. Frankly, these parasites merely had it coming.”
Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks mentioned in court docket that Mangione was discovered with a passport and $10,000 in money — $2,000 of it in overseas foreign money. Mangione disputed the quantity.
Thompson, 50, was killed final Wednesday as he walked alone to a midtown Manhattan resort for an investor convention. Police shortly got here to see the taking pictures as a focused assault by a gunman who appeared to attend for Thompson, got here up behind him and fired a 9 mm pistol.
Investigators have mentioned “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on ammunition discovered close to Thompson’s physique. The phrases mimic a phrase used to criticize the insurance industry.
From surveillance video, New York investigators gathered that the shooter fled by bike into Central Park, emerged, then took a taxi to a northern Manhattan bus terminal.
As soon as in Pennsylvania, he went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “attempting to remain low-profile” by avoiding cameras, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens mentioned.
A grandson of a rich, self-made actual property developer and philanthropist, Mangione is a cousin of a present Maryland state legislator. Mangione was valedictorian at his elite Baltimore prep college, the place his 2016 commencement speech lauded his classmates’ “unbelievable braveness to discover the unknown and check out new issues.”
He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate levels in pc science in 2020 from the College of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson mentioned.
“Our household is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s household mentioned in a press release posted on social media late Monday by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione. “We provide our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson and we ask individuals to wish for all concerned.”
Luigi Nicholas Mangione labored for a time for the car-buying web site TrueCar and left in 2023, CEO Jantoon Reigersman mentioned by e mail.
From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” house on the fringe of Honolulu vacationer mecca Waikiki.
Like different residents of the shared penthouse catering to distant staff, Mangione underwent a background test, mentioned Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for proprietor and founder R.J. Martin.
“Luigi was simply broadly thought of to be a fantastic man. There have been no complaints,” Ryan mentioned. “There was no signal which may level to those alleged crimes they’re saying he dedicated.”
At Surfbreak, Martin discovered Mangione had extreme again ache from childhood that interfered with many elements of his life, from browsing to romance, Ryan mentioned.
“He went browsing with R.J. as soon as however it didn’t work out due to his again,” Ryan mentioned, however famous that Mangione and Martin typically went collectively to a rock-climbing health club.
Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgical procedure on the mainland, Ryan mentioned, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an residence.
Martin stopped listening to from Mangione six months to a 12 months in the past.
Though the gunman obscured his face in the course of the taking pictures, he left a path of proof in New York, together with a backpack he ditched in Central Park, a cellphone present in a pedestrian plaza, a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper.
Within the days after the taking pictures, the NYPD collected tons of of hours of surveillance video and launched a number of clips and nonetheless pictures in hopes of enlisting the general public’s eyes to assist discover a suspect.
“This mix of old-school detective work and new-age expertise is what led to this consequence immediately,” Tisch mentioned on the New York information convention.
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Scolforo reported from Altoona and Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Contributing have been Related Press writers Cedar Attanasio and Jennifer Peltz in New York; Michael Rubinkam and Maryclaire Dale in Pennsylvania; Lea Skene in Baltimore and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu.
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