Suspect in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO charged in New York

New York prosecutors file murder charges against suspect assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEOadvancing a case that led police to search for the masked gunman with dogs, drones and divers.

To find the alleged shooter, investigators analyzed DNA samples, fingerprints and Internet addresses. The police went door to door looking for witnesses.

How did the arrest come about on Monday?

The main suspect He was arrested on Mondayfive days after extensive investigative efforts and the instincts of an alert civilian. It involved a McDonald's customer in Pennsylvania who noticed another customer who looked like the man in the oblique security camera photos that the NYPD had released.

That's how Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, was found and arrested. He is accused of the murder of Brian Thompson, who ran one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States.

Mangione was jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possession of a firearm without a license, forgery and providing false identification to police.

What's coming now?

By late Monday afternoon, Manhattan prosecutors had added a murder charge, according to an online court filing. He is expected to be extradited to New York at some point.

It is unclear if Mangione has an attorney who can comment on the allegations. Asked at Monday's arraignment if he needed a public defender, Mangione asked if he could “answer that at a future date.”

Details of the arrest

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after the McDonald's customer recognized him and notified an employee, authorities said. Police in Altoona, about 230 miles west of New York City, were summoned shortly afterward.

They arrived to find Mangione sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, according to a Pennsylvania police criminal complaint.

He initially gave them a fake ID, but when an officer asked Mangione if he had been in New York recently, “he became quiet and began to shake,” the complaint says.

When he lowered his mask at the officers' request, “we knew it was our guy,” rookie officer Tyler Frye said at a news conference in Hollidaysburg.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference in Manhattan that Mangione was carrying a gun like the one used to kill Thompson and the same fake ID he had used to check into a New York shelter. along with a passport and other fraudulent identification.

New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione also had a three-page handwritten document showing “some ill will toward American corporations.”

A law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke with The Associated Press On condition of anonymity, he said the document included a line in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.

“To the feds, I will be brief, because I respect what they do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I clearly state that I was not working with anyone,” the document stated, according to the official.

Mangione's reasons and apologies

The document highlighted another phrase from the accused: “I apologize for any conflict or trauma, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites just had it coming.”

Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of it in foreign currency. Mangione questioned the amount.

Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday while walking alone to a midtown Manhattan hotel for an investor conference. Police quickly came to view the shooting as a targeted attack by a gunman who appeared to wait for Thompson, approached from behind and fired a 9mm handgun.

Investigators have said that “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on ammunition found near Thompson's body. The words mimic a phrase used to criticize the insurance industry.

From surveillance video, New York investigators deduced that the shooter fled on a bicycle toward Central Park, got out and then took a taxi to a bus terminal in northern Manhattan.

Once in Pennsylvania, he went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to keep a low profile” by avoiding cameras, said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens.

The grandson of a wealthy real estate developer and self-made philanthropist, Mangione is the cousin of a current Maryland state legislator. Mangione was the valedictorian of his elite prep school in Baltimore, where his 2016 graduation speech praised his classmates' “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”

He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson said.

“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest,” Mangione's family said in a statement posted on social media Monday night by his cousin, Maryland legislator Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and ask people to pray for everyone involved.”

Luigi Nicholas Mangione worked for a time at car-buying website TrueCar and left in 2023, CEO Jantoon Reigersman said by email.

From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space on the outskirts of Waikiki, Honolulu's tourist mecca.

Like other residents of the shared penthouse for remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesman for owner and founder RJ Martin.

“Luigi was widely considered a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that could point to these alleged crimes that they say he committed.”

At Surfbreak, Martin learned that Mangione had severe back pain since childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, from surfing to romance, Ryan said.

“He went surfing with RJ once, but it didn't work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went to a rock climbing gym together.

Mangione left Surfbreak to have surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment.

Martin stopped hearing from Mangione between six months and a year ago.

Although he hid his face during the shooting, Mangione left a trail of evidence in New York, including a backpack he abandoned in Central Park, a cell phone found in a pedestrian plaza, a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper.

In the days following the shooting, the NYPD collected hundreds of hours of surveillance video and released multiple clips and still images in hopes of attracting public attention to help find a suspect.

“This combination of old-school detective work and new-age technology is what led to today's outcome,” Tisch said at the New York news conference.

(With information from AP)