Brian Thompson murder: New York police charge Luigi Mangione with United Healthcare CEO’s killing

The police in New York has arrested 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione, who has been identified as the suspected murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione was produced in court later on Monday. According to an online court docket, Manhattan prosecutors on Monday filed murder and other charges against Mangione. He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.

Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday as he walked alone to a hotel, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference.

According to a report by The Associated Press Mangione was recognised by a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who then informed an employee and alerted police after which he was arrested.

Cops said that they expect murder charges to be filed against him in New York in the coming days.

He was initially identified by authorities as a “strong person of interest."

Luigi Mangione was not on list of suspects

Investigators said that the finding of Mangione was a complete surprise, and that they did not have his name on a list of suspects prior to Monday.

Police recovered a three-page handwritten document that mentioned grievances with the US healthcare system and indicated the suspect’s “motivation and mindset”. It seemed to express “ill will towards corporate America,” officials said.

The handwritten document “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Who was he spotted?

As per court documents, Mangione was sitting in the rear of the McDonald’s in Altoona wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop screen. A customer saw him and an employee called 911, Kaz Daughtry, an NYPD deputy commissioner said.

As per Tisch, Mangione had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting.

‘We knew that was our guy’

Altoona Police Officer Tyler Frye said he and his partner recognised the suspect immediately when he pulled down his mask. “We just didn’t think twice about it. We knew that was our guy,” Frye said.

Mangione was carrying ghost gun

In his backpack, Mangione was reportedly carrying a so-called ghost gun, a largely untraceable firearm that can be assembled at home using kits, and was probably manufactured on a 3D printer, police said. He also had a suppressor.

He was carrying the firearm that was strikingly similar to the one used in the shooting.

Fake IDs

Police informed that Mangione was also carrying several IDs, including one with his real identity and another that was fake. The IDs included a US passport and a fraudulent New Jersey ID that was used to check into the New York City hostel, where he was seen before the shooting.

As per a local prosecutor, he was carrying $10,000 in cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency.

Who is Luigi Mangione, a suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO?

1 - According to police Luigi Nicholas Mangione hails from a prominent Maryland real estate family.

2 - Mangione also has ties to San Francisco, California, New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

3 - Cops said he has no prior arrests in New York and his last previous address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

4 - Mangione attended a private, all-boys high school – the Gilman School – in Baltimore. He was named as the valedictorian, typically the student with the highest academic achievements in a class.

5 He then completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania.

6 - According to Mangione’s social media profiles, he worked as a data engineer for TrueCar, a digital retailing website for new and used cars. However, a BBC report quoted a company spokesman as saying that he had not worked there since 2023.

7 - As per Mangione’s LinkedIn profile, he previously worked as a programming intern for Fixarixis, a video game developer.

8 - Local media reports said Mangione comes from a prominent family in the Baltimore area whose businesses include a country club and nursing homes.

9 - As per media reports, he is the cousin of Republican state lawmaker Nino Mangione.

With inputs from agencies.