Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing charged with murder, court records show
NEW YORK (WPIX) –
A man in Pennsylvania has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after being recognized by a McDonald’s employee.
Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Luigi Mangione, 26, late Monday, according to an online court docket. He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
According to court documents, Mangione was sitting at a table in the rear of a McDonald’s in Altoona earlier in the day wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a silver laptop computer.
Once he pulled down his mask, Altoona police officers “immediately recognized him as the suspect” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the documents said.
“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a Monday night press conference. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”
When an officer asked the suspect if he had recently been to New York, he “became quiet and started to shake,” according to the documents.
In his backpack, police found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed black silencer, the documents said. The pistol had a metal slide and plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel.
Authorities said Mangione was also carrying a passport and $10,000 in cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency. He disputed the amount. Mangione was also in possession of a three-page document with writings critical of corporate America with him, they said.
“We don’t think that there’s any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document, but it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” NYPD Chief Joseph Kenny said.
Mangione had no prior arrests that the NYPD was aware of, and the investigation indicated that the suspect acted alone, they said.
The suspect’s arrest came shortly after dogs and divers returned Monday to New York’s Central Park while the dragnet for Thompson’s killer stretched into a sixth day.
Investigators have been combing the park since the Wednesday shooting and have been searching at least one of its ponds for three days looking for evidence that may have been thrown into it.
Thompson was arriving at an investors meeting at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel just before 7 a.m. when he was shot in the back and leg by a masked gunman, according to the NYPD.
He was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The suspect was waiting for Thompson to arrive at the hotel, police said.
The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching the executive from behind and opening fire, Tisch said.
Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” written on them, sources previously told WPIX.
A backpack believed to belong to the suspect was found in Central Park on Friday, but the gun used in the shooting was not in it, sources said.
The gunman arrived in New York City on a bus that originated in Atlanta, sources said.
The suspect was believed to have fled the city by bus after the shooting, police said.
The FBI was offering up to $50,000 for information that would lead to an arrest in Thompson’s slaying. The NYPD was also offering a $10,000 reward.
Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspect that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue mask.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
