ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — After UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was gunned down on a New York sidewalk, police searched for the masked gunman with dogs, drones and scuba divers. Officers used the city's muscular surveillance system. Investigators analyzed DNA samples, fingerprints and internet addresses. Police went door-to-door looking for witnesses.
When an arrest came five days later, those sprawling investigative efforts shared credit with an alert civilian's instincts. A Pennsylvania McDonald's customer noticed another patron who resembled the man in the oblique security-camera photos that New York police had publicized.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, was arrested Monday in the killing of Brian Thompson, who headed one of the United States’ largest medical insurance companies.
He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. By late evening, prosecutors in Manhattan had added a charge of murder, according to an online court docket. He's expected to be extradited to New York eventually.
It’s unclear whether Mangione has an attorney who can comment on the allegations. Asked at Monday's arraignment whether he needed a public defender, Mangione asked whether he could “answer that at a future date.”
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after the McDonald's customer recognized him and notified an employee, authorities said. Police in Altoona, about 233 miles (375 kilometers) west of New York City, were soon summoned.
They arrived to find Mangione sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, according to a Pennsylvania police criminal complaint.
He initially gave them a fake ID, but when an officer asked Mangione whether he’d been to New York recently, he “became quiet and started to shake,” the complaint says.
When he pulled his mask down at officers' request, “we knew that was our guy,” rookie Officer Tyler Frye said at a news conference in Hollidaysburg.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Manhattan news conference that Mangione was carrying a gun like the one used to kill Thompson and the same fake ID the shooter had used to check into a New York hostel, along with a passport and other fraudulent IDs.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione also had a three-page, handwritten document that shows “some ill will toward corporate America."
A law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the document included a line in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official.
It also had a line that said, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 in cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency. Mangione disputed the amount.
Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday as he walked alone to a midtown Manhattan hotel for an investor conference. Police quickly came to see the shooting as a targeted attack by a gunman who appeared to wait for Thompson, came up behind him and fired a 9 mm pistol.
Investigators have said “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on ammunition found near Thompson’s body. The words mimic a phrase used to criticize the insurance industry.
From surveillance video, New York investigators gathered that the shooter fled by bike into Central Park, emerged, then took a taxi to a northern Manhattan bus terminal.
Once in Pennsylvania, he went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to stay low-profile” by avoiding cameras, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said.
A grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist, Mangione is a cousin of a current Maryland state legislator. Mangione was valedictorian at his elite Baltimore prep school, where his 2016 graduation speech lauded his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”
He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson said.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media late Monday by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Luigi Nicholas Mangione worked for a time for the car-buying website TrueCar and left in 2023, CEO Jantoon Reigersman said by email.
From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of Honolulu tourist mecca Waikiki.
Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin.
“Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. "There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.”
At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, from surfing to romance, Ryan said.
“He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back," Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym.
Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment.
Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago.
Although the gunman obscured his face during the shooting, he left a trail of evidence in New York, including a backpack he ditched in Central Park, a cellphone found in a pedestrian plaza, a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper.
In the days after the shooting, the NYPD collected hundreds of hours of surveillance video and released multiple clips and still images in hopes of enlisting the public’s eyes to help find a suspect.
“This combination of old-school detective work and new-age technology is what led to this result today,” Tisch said at the New York news conference.
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Scolforo reported from Altoona and Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Contributing were Associated Press writers Cedar Attanasio and Jennifer Peltz in New York; Michael Rubinkam and Maryclaire Dale in Pennsylvania; Lea Skene in Baltimore and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu.
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NEW YORK (AP) —Police arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.
The 26-year-old man had a gun believed to be the one used in the killing and writings suggesting his anger with corporate America, police officials said. He was taken into custody after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
Police identified the suspect as Luigi Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address is in Honolulu, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.
Here's the latest:
A McDonald’s customer first recognized Mangione and notified an employee, authorities say
“The customer recognized, notified an employee and wanted someone to check it out further,” said Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police.
Suspect went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh after the shooting, authorities say
He likely “was in a variety of locations across the state,” Bivens said.
“Based on everything we have seen, he was very careful with trying to stay low profile, avoid cameras — not all that successfully in some cases, but that was certainly the effort he was making," Bivens said. “He took steps to try and avoid detection with some of the electronic devices as well.”
Rookie police officer who helped arrest the suspect says, ‘We knew that was our guy’
Officer Tyler Frye, who has only been on the job for about six months, and a fellow officer responded to the McDonald’s where the suspect was spotted.
They asked him to pull his blue medical mask down and “recognized him immediately” Frye said. “We didn’t even think twice about it, we knew that was our guy.”
Frye said “it feels good to get a guy like that off the street, especially starting my career this way, it feels great.”
Mangione had a large sum of cash when he was arrested, prosecutor says
Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was carrying a passport and $10,000 in cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency.
Mangione disputed the amount.
He was also found with a box of masks, the prosecutor said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro hails the ‘hero’ who notified police about the suspect
“A Pennsylvania resident saw something early this morning and said something to our local police,” Shapiro said.
“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” the Democrat continued. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”
Authorities are giving an update after Mangione’s arraignment
Altoona’s Deputy Chief Derek Swope opens the news conference. At least a half-dozen men in NYPD jackets are lined up behind the microphones, along with a Pennsylvania state trooper and other law enforcement personnel.
Mangione is arraigned and ordered held without bail
Asked if he needed a public defender, he asked if he could “answer that at a future date.”
What police say they found in Mangione’s backpack
After Mangione provided his real name and birth date, he was taken into custody on charges of forgery and false identification to law enforcement, court documents say.
In his backpack, police found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed black silencer, the papers say.
The pistol had a metal slide and plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel. It had one loaded Glock magazine with six 9 mm full metal jacket rounds and one loose 9 mm hollow-point round.
Court docs describe the moment police saw Mangione in the McDonald’s
According to court documents, Mangione was sitting at a table in the rear of the McDonalds wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a silver laptop computer and had a backpack on the floor.
When he pulled down his mask, Altoona police officers “immediately recognized him as the suspect” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the documents say.
Asked for identification, Mangione provided officers with a fake ID — a New Jersey driver’s license bearing another name and the incorrect date of birth.
Mangione began shaking when police asked if he had been in New York recently, court papers say
When an officer asked Mangione if he’d been to New York recently, he “became quiet and started to shake,” the court documents say.
Mangione is charged with weapons, forgery and other charges in Pennsylvania
A police criminal complaint charged him with forgery, carrying firearms without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing an instrument of crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.
Mangione arrives at court
Video posted on the social platform X shows a handcuffed Mangione arriving at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
Recent cases su
ggest that it could be a while before Mangione is returned to New York
For example, it took about 10 months to extradite a man charged with stabbing two workers at the Museum of Modern Art in 2022.
The suspect, Gary Cabana, was also arrested in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with setting his Philadelphia hotel room on fire. Cabana was sent back to New York after he pleaded guilty to an arson charge in Pennsylvania.
Manhattan prosecutors could seek to expedite the process by indicting Mangione for Thompson’s killing while he’s still in custody of Pennsylvania authorities. They could then obtain what’s known as a supreme court warrant or fugitive warrant to get him back to New York.
Former classmate of Mangione says 'he had everything going for him’
Freddie Leatherbury hasn’t spoken to Mangione since they graduated in 2016 from Gilman School in Maryland. He said Mangione was a smart, friendly and athletic student who came from a wealthy family, even by the private school’s standards.
“Quite honestly, he had everything going for him,” Leatherbury said.
Leatherbury said he was stunned when a friend shared the news of their former classmate’s arrest.
“He does not seem like the kind of guy to do this based on everything I’d known about him in high school,” Leatherbury said.
Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family
One of his cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesperson for the delegate’s office confirmed Monday.
Luigi Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of Nick Mangione Sr., according to a 2008 obituary.
Mangione Sr. grew up poor in Baltimore’s Little Italy and rose after his World War II naval service to become a millionaire real estate developer and philanthropist, according to a 1995 profile by the Baltimore Sun. He and his wife Mary Cuba Mangione, who died in 2023, directed their philanthropy through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating her death. They donated to a variety of causes, ranging from Catholic organizations to higher education to the arts.
A man who answered the door to the office of the Mangione Family Foundation declined to comment Monday evening.
Mangione Sr. was known for Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione Sr. prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report.
The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday afternoon, Baltimore County police officers had blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. A swarm of reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance.
UnitedHealth Group comments on the arrest
“Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” a spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group said Monday. “We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.”
Baltimore’s Gilman School sends an email about Luigi Mangione’s arrest
In an email to parents and alumni, Gilman headmaster Henry P.A. Smyth said it “recently” learned that Mangione, a 2016 graduate, was arrested in the CEO’s killing.
“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 at the University of Pennsylvania
Mangione, a high school valedictorian from a Maryland prep school, 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.
Altoona police describe how they arrested the suspect
Altoona police say officers were dispatched to a McDonald’s on Monday morning in response to reports of a male matching the description of the man wanted in connection with the United Healthcare CEO’s killing in New York City.
In a news release, police say officers made contact with the man, who was then arrested on unrelated charges. The Altoona Police Department says it’s cooperating with local, state, and federal agencies.
Police are investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania
“This just happened this morning. We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said.