NEW YORK (WPIX) – A man arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been identified as Luigi Mangione, officials said Monday.
Mangione, 26, was taken into custody in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday. He was arrested by the Altoona Police Department on unrelated firearms charges after a McDonald’s employee recognized him, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
“Responding officers questioned the suspect, who was acting suspiciously and was carrying multiple fraudulent IDs as well as a U.S. passport,” Tisch said.
Officers recovered a firearm and suppressor consistent with the weapon used to kill Thompson, the commissioner said. Clothing and a mask consistent with those worn by the shooting suspect, as well as a fake New Jersey ID matching the one used at a Manhattan hostel where the gunman was believed to have stayed before the shooting, were also recovered.
Mangione had writings critical of corporate America with him, according to police, with Tisch adding that the document “speaks to both his motivation and mindset.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has ties to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.
He has no prior arrest history in New York.
Mangione graduated from Baltimore’s Gilman school in 2016, Gilman headmaster Henry P.A. Smyth said in an email to parents and alumni.
“We do not have any information other than what is being reported in the news,” Smyth wrote. “This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.”
Mangione earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday. He had learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication.
His posts also suggest that he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, the New Jersey shore and other destinations.
Thompson, 50, was shot and killed outside a Midtown hotel Wednesday morning as he arrived for an investors’ meeting. The brazen shooting set off a days-long manhunt, with NYPD officers combing through Midtown, Central Park, and the Upper West Side.
Late last week, police said they believed the suspect had left New York City on a bus on the day of the shooting.
Tisch previously described the shooting as a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.” Kenny on Monday said the three-page document found on Mangione indicated he had “ill will toward corporate America.”
“We don’t think that there’s any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document,” Kenny said.
The words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition found at the scene of Thompson’s killing, according to Kenny. The words are similar to a phrase used by critics of the insurance industry.
The FBI offered up to $50,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in the case. It was not immediately clear whether the McDonald’s employee would receive the reward.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
