When an arrest was made five days later, these sprawling investigative efforts were shared with the instincts of a vigilant civilian. A customer at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania noticed that another customer looked like the man in oblique security camera photos released by New York police.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, was arrested Monday for the murder of Brian Thompson, who ran one of the largest insurance companies medical office of the United States.
He remained incarcerated in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possessing a firearm without a license, forgery and providing false identification to police. Late in the evening, Manhattan prosecutors added a murder charge, according to an online court docket. He should be extradited to New York.
26-year-old man charged with murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO (VideoElephant)
It is unclear whether Mr. Mangione has a lawyer who can comment on the allegations. Asked during Monday’s appearance whether a court-appointed attorney was needed, Mr. Mangione asked if he could “answer that question at a later date.”
Mr. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s customer recognized him and warned an employee, according to authorities. Police in Altoona, about 230 miles west of New York, were quickly called.
When they arrived, they found Mr. 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 him if he had been to New York recently, he became silent and started shaking, according to the complaint.
When he lowered his mask at the officers’ request, “we knew he was our guy,” Officer Tyler Frye said at a press conference in Hollidaysburg.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference in Manhattan that Mr. Mangione was carrying a gun similar to the one used to kill Thompson and the same fake ID used by the shooter to check into a New York hostel, along with a fraudulent passport and other ID cards.
New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mr. Mangione also had a three-page handwritten document that showed “some ill will toward corporate America.”
A law enforcement official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the document included a line in which Mr. Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
“For the feds, I will be brief, because I respect what you do for our country. To spare you a long investigation, I clearly state that I did not work with anyone,” the document said, according to the official.
It also contained a line that read: “I apologize for any conflict or trauma, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites were looking for it.”
Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks told the court that Mr Mangione was found in possession of a passport and US$10,000 in cash, including US$2,000 in foreign currency. Mr. Mangione disputed this amount.
Mr. Thompson, 50, was killed Wednesday when he went alone to a hotel in midtown Manhattan to attend an investors conference. Police quickly assumed it was a targeted attack by an armed man who appeared to be waiting for Mr. Thompson, approached him and fired a 9mm pistol.
Investigators said the words “delay», «deny» et «depose» were written on the ammunition found near the body of Mr. Thompson, the head of the largest subsidiary of the UnitedHealth group, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The words mimic “delay, deny, defend,” a phrase used to criticize the insurance industry.
Thanks to surveillance videos, New York investigators learned that the shooter fled on a bicycle into Central Park, got out, then took a taxi to a bus station in northern Manhattan.
Once in Pennsylvania, he drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to keep a low profile” by avoiding cameras, said Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police. Altoona is about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
The grandson of a wealthy real estate developer and philanthropist, Mr. Mangione is the cousin of a Maryland lawmaker.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mr. 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 Brian Thompson’s family and ask people to pray for everyone involved.”
Although the shooter hid his face during the shooting, he left traces in New York, including a backpack he abandoned in Central Park, a cell phone found in a pedestrian plaza, a bottle of water and the packaging of a protein bar.
In the days following the shooting, the New York Police Department collected hundreds of hours of surveillance video and released clips and still images in hopes of attracting public attention to help them find a suspect.
“It was a combination of old-fashioned detective work and cutting-edge technology that produced today’s result,” Tisch said at the press conference. in New York.
