By CEDAR ATTANASIO and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted investigators to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush, leading police to arrest a strong person of interest Monday in the heinous Manhattan death of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO.
According to police sources, the 26-year-old man had writings that suggested his resentment of corporate America and a gun that was thought to have been used in the murder.
At a press conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that he was arrested after police received a tip that he was dining at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
According to Tisch, he was wearing the same clothes and mask as the gunman and had a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one the suspect used to check into a hostel in New York City before to the attack.
The suspect, named by NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, is Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a Maryland native with ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii. A message left on Monday with a phone number associated with Mangione in the Philadelphia region was not immediately answered.
According to Mangione’s LinkedIn page, which has been cited by various news outlets, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
According to Kenny, Mangione would eventually be extradited to New York to face charges related to Thompson’s death. He was being jailed in Pennsylvania on gun-related charges.
According to Kenny, police discovered a three-page document that contained statements implying that Mangione harbored animosity toward corporate America.
According to Tisch, the handwritten document reflects his drive and attitude.
According to police, Mangione possessed a ghost gun, a kind of firearm that can be put together at home using parts that don’t have a serial number, making them hard to track down.
According to the information we currently have from Altoona, the pistol looks to be a ghost gun that could have been created using a 3D printer and is able to fire a 9 mm round, Kenny stated.
Mangione was questioned by officers because she was acting strangely and had many fake identification documents and a U.S. passport, Tisch said. According to the commissioner, officers discovered a suppressor that matched the rifle used in the crime.
This video capture shows Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, responding to questions at a press conference on Monday, December 9, 2024, in New York. (The Mayor’s Office of New York City via AP)AP
Kenny stated that Mangione would be interviewed in Altoona by NYPD detectives and personnel from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
As he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was conducting its annual investor conference, UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday in what authorities described as a blatant, deliberate attack.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the shooter seemed to be waiting for a few minutes before coming up behind the executive and starting to fire. According to the authorities, he used a 9 mm handgun that looked like the weapons farmers use to kill animals quietly.
Police released a set of nine images and videos, including footage of the attack and pictures of the suspect at a Starbucks prior, in an effort to rally the public in the days following the massacre.
Police on Monday praised the tipster for identifying the perpetrator and contacting the police, and news outlets for sharing the photos.
Fortunately, someone in Pennsylvania recognized the suspect and called the Altoona Police Department. After investigating the call, the officers informed the NYPD, Kenny added.
According to authorities, the guy smiled after taking off his mask in pictures shot in the foyer of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Earlier, investigators hypothesized that the shooter might have been an unhappy client or employee of the insurance company. Delay, deny, and depose were written on ammunition discovered close to Thompson’s body, echoing a term used by critics of the insurance industry.
Despite wearing a mask throughout the shooting, the gunman left behind a trail of evidence, including a backpack he abandoned in Central Park, a smartphone discovered in a public plaza, and the wrapper for a protein bar and water bottle that police claim he purchased at Starbucks just before the assault.
Police suspect the murderer departed the city on a bus, and they discovered the backpack he allegedly threw away as he ran from the crime scene to an uptown bus stop on Friday.
Using security footage to trace the gunman’s movements, authorities said the shooter escaped into Central Park on a bicycle, came out of the park without his backpack, and then abandoned the bike.
After walking a few yards, he hopped into a taxi and arrived at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is close to Manhattan’s northern edge and provides Greyhound travel to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington in addition to commuter service to New Jersey, according to Kenny.
In addition to the NYPD’s reward of up to $10,000, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information that results in an arrest and conviction.
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