A man arrested in central Pennsylvania on Monday is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York City.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was taken into custody by Altoona police at McDonald’s, 407 E. Plank Rd., at about 9:15 a.m., according to statements by Altoona and New York police officials. Mangione was arrested on charges including carrying a firearm without a license after a restaurant employee reported seeing a man who looked like the suspect in pictures disseminated by the NYPD.
ABC News reported that Mangione was traveling on a bus that stopped at the McDonald’s, some 280 miles from the midtown Manhattan hotel where Thompson was fatally shot in what NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called a “brazen, targeted murder.”
He was charged in New York with murder late Monday night.
Altoona police found in Mangione’s possession a gun and suppreser that matched the weapon believed to have been used to kill Thompson, NYPD officials said at a press conference on Monday. Mangione also had “multiple fraudulent IDs as well as a US passport,” Tisch said, including a New Jersey ID the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting.
“Additionally, officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.
Clothing, including a mask, consistent with those worn by the suspect were also found.
NYPD investigators arrived at the Altoona Police Department at about 3:15 p.m. on Monday. Mangione was arraigned Monday night on Pennsylvania charges of carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, false identification to law enforcement, tampering with records or identification and possessing instruments of crime.
He is being held with out bail at Huntingdon state prison and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 23. In the meantime, however, New York will begin the extradition process.
A manhunt has been underway inside and outside of New York after the fatal shooting of Thompson on Dec. 4 outside the Hilton Midtown, where the 50-year-old was going to speak to investors he was approached from behind and shot. The shooting was captured on surveillance video.
Police began circulating images of a person of interest in the shooting the next day, and later said they believed the killer may have left the city by bus.
State police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference on Monday night that Mangione had been in Pennsylvania for several days, and that investigators are working on piecing together his movements since the shooting.
Mangione is a 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s and masters degrees in computer and information science, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.
