A 26-year-old man has been charged with homicide over final week’s deadly capturing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York Metropolis.
Luigi Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald’s within the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 280 miles (450km) west of New York Metropolis on Monday after a buyer on the fast-food outlet recognised him.
An Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland household, he was present in possession of a gun and a handwritten doc that indicated “motivation and mindset”, based on police.
Mr Mangione then appeared in a Pennsylvania court docket to be arraigned on 5 preliminary counts and was denied bail.
Simply hours later, New York investigators charged Mr Mangione with homicide and 4 different counts together with firearms fees.
Mr Thompson, 50, was fatally shot within the again final Wednesday morning exterior the Hilton lodge in Midtown Manhattan the place UnitedHealthcare, the medical insurance coverage big he led, was holding an buyers’ assembly.
Police say he was focused in a pre-planned killing.
Mr Mangione is in jail in Pennsylvania, the place he was formally charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and offering false identification to police.
He was handcuffed on the wrists and ankles when he appeared in court docket there earlier on Monday.
Sporting denims and a darkish blue jersey, Mr Mangione appeared calm throughout the listening to, often trying round at these current, together with the media.
Final week’s capturing triggered an enormous manhunt, with New York Metropolis investigators utilizing one of many world’s largest digital surveillance methods in addition to police canine, drones and divers in a Central Park lake to seek for the attacker.
Investigators revealed that discovering Mr Mangione was an entire shock, as they didn’t have his identify on an inventory of suspects earlier than Monday.
It was finally a McDonald’s buyer in Altoona that recognised the suspect from media protection and alerted an worker, who then tipped off the police.
When police arrived, Mr Mangione confirmed them a pretend New Jersey driver’s licence with the identify Mark Rosario, mentioned court docket papers.
He “turned quiet and began to shake” when an officer requested if he had been to New York just lately, the felony criticism provides.
When he was advised he can be arrested if he lied about his identify, he gave his actual identify, based on the court docket papers.
Requested why he lied, he advised officers that “I clearly should not have”.
A search of his backpack uncovered what police known as a “ghost gun” – which may have been 3D-printed – and a loaded journal with six rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Prosecutors mentioned he was additionally carrying a US passport and $10,000 money, $2,000 of it in overseas foreign money, although Mr Mangione disputed the quantity in court docket.
A 3-page handwritten doc discovered on his possession instructed he harboured “ailing will in the direction of company America”, mentioned officers.
Investigators say the phrases “deny”, “defend” and “depose” had been written on shell casings discovered on the scene of Mr Thompson’s homicide.
Officers consider this could possibly be a reference to what critics name the “three Ds of insurance coverage” – techniques utilized by insurance coverage firms to reject fee claims by sufferers in America’s sophisticated healthcare system.
Earlier within the day, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned the weapon and suppressor seized by investigators from the suspect had been “each in line with the weapon used within the homicide” of Mr Thompson.
Mr Mangione is now anticipated to be offered with the choice of waiving his extradition to the state of New York, or contesting it.
If he waives it, he’ll instantly be made out there to New York authorities. If he contests it, the method may take between 30 and 45 days.
Mr Mangione’s household mentioned they had been “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.
“We provide our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson and we ask folks to hope for all concerned,” mentioned their assertion, which was posted on social media late on Monday by the defendant’s cousin, Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione.
As a teen, Mr Mangione attended a non-public all-boys faculty in Maryland, the place he was class valedictorian, a title often awarded to college students with the most effective grades.
He graduated from the College of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school.
His LinkedIn account says he labored as a knowledge engineer in California. TrueCar, a web site for automobile patrons, confirmed that he had been employed there however left in 2023.
Mr Mangione’s final identified handle was in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A number of posts to an account on X, previously Twitter, that appeared to belong to Mr Mangione instructed that pals had been making an attempt to achieve him, with one individual posting in October that “no one has heard from you in months”.
