The 26-year-old man charged in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in New York City shouted and struggled with officers as he arrived in court for an initial court appearance Tuesday in Pennsylvania. He shouted something that was partly unintelligible, but referred to an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
Police arrested Luigi Nicholas Mangione on Monday in last Wednesday’s attack on Brian Thompson after they say a worker at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, alerted authorities to a customer who resembled the suspected gunman. Mangione had on him a gun that investigators believe was used in last Wednesday’s attack, as well as writings expressing anger at corporate America, police said.
Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. Manhattan prosecutors have charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Mangione’s lawyer, Tom Dickey, declined to comment on the case ahead of the hearing but said he would discuss it later.
Here are some of the latest developments:
What’s the latest?
A customer at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested said Tuesday that one of his friends commented before the arrest that the man looked like the suspect wanted for the shooting in New York City.
“It started out almost a little bit like a joke, my one friend thought he looked like the shooter,” said the customer, who declined to give his full name. “It wasn’t really a joke, but we laughed about it.”
What evidence has been gathered?
In addition to a three-page, handwritten document that suggests he harbored “ill will toward corporate America,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday that Mangione also had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home and is difficult to trace.
Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a U.S. passport, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Officers also found a sound suppressor, or silencer, “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” she said.
He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, the commissioner said.
What do we know about Mangione?
Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and that his last known address is in Honolulu.
Mangione, who was valedictorian of his Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday.
Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978.
Mangione likely was motivated by his anger with what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain with corporate greed, said a law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, which was based on a review of the suspect’s hand-written notes and social media postings.
The defendant appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown and may have been inspired by “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whom he called a “political revolutionary,” the document said.
The shooting and a quick escape
Police said the person who killed Thompson left a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at 5:41 a.m. on Wednesday.
Eleven minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, wearing a distinctive backpack.
At 6:44 a.m., he shot Thompson at a side entrance to the hotel, fled on foot, then climbed aboard a bicycle and within four minutes had entered Central Park, according to police.
Another security camera recorded the gunman leaving the park near the American Museum of Natural History at 6:56 a.m. still on the bicycle but without the backpack, police said.
After getting in a taxi, he headed north to a bus terminal near the George Washington Bridge, arriving at around 7:30 a.m.
From there, the trail of video evidence runs cold. Police have not located video of the suspect exiting the building, leading them to believe he likely took a bus out of town. Police said they are still investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania.
“This just happened this morning,” Kenny said. “We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said.
Associated Press reporters Lea Skene, Matt O’Brien, Sean Murphy and Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.
