Suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO had ties to Santa Monica and Stanford, records show
The 26-year-old man arrested Monday in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive on the streets of New York once worked for a Santa Monica-based company and spent time at Stanford University, records show.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was taken into custody by law enforcement in Pennsylvania following an intensive manhunt after the killing of 50-year-old Brian Thompson in an early-morning ambush last week. At a news conference announcing the arrest, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has ties to California with a last known address in Honolulu.
He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., after someone recognized him, police said.
According to public records, Mangione spent time at Stanford University in 2019 and once worked for Santa Monica-based TrueCar, a digital marketplace for automobiles.
TrueCar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Stanford University confirmed that a person named Luigi Mangione was employed as a head counselor under the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies program between May and September of 2019.
Prior to Stanford, he studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. His LinkedIn and GitHub profiles reflected an entrepreneurial streak: Mangione founded a video game club and later a startup developing games.
Mangione was the class valedictorian in 2016 at Gilman School, a private all-boys school in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore Sun.
CNN reported that police found a document when making the arrest in which the suspect allegedly railed against the health care system.
“These parasites had it coming,” CNN reported the document as saying. “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”
The Times could not confirm the document or its origins.
Thompson, 50, was killed in what police said was a “brazen, targeted” attack as he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference, police said.
The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching the executive from behind and opening fire, Tisch said. He used a 9-millimeter pistol that police said resembled guns that farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise.
In the days since the shooting, police turned to the public for help by releasing a collection of photos and video — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspect at a Starbucks beforehand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
