After a manhunt that lasted several days, police have finally arrested a suspect, Luigi Mangione, 26, in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione was charged in Manhattan with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm, The New York Times reports.
The arrest came after police detained Mangione for questioning in Altoona, Pennsylvania, hours earlier. Law enforcement officials said they identified him thanks to a tip from an “elderly patron” at a local McDonald’s who spotted him at the restaurant. Mangione reportedly had a gun, a silencer, and false ID cards similar to those thought to have been used by the killer in New York City.
When approached by authorities at the McDonald’s, Mangione reportedly showed police the same fake New Jersey ID that the gunman allegedly used when he checked into a hostel in Manhattan on Nov. 24. Asked if he had been to New York recently, “the male became quiet and started to shake,” according to documents obtained by the NYT.
Law enforcement also said Mangione had had a handwritten manifesto, which criticized healthcare companies and the ways they prioritize profits over patient care.
Following his arrest, Mangione was ordered held without bail and did not enter a plea in his first court appearance today in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was later transferred to Manhattan.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Dec. 4, Thompson was shot multiple times outside of a New York hotel before the gunman fled the scene first on foot and later on a bike. The CEO was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Authorities launched a manhunt after the suspect disappeared into Central Park.
Footage of the attack, which occurred at around 6:45 a.m., was shared across social media. In the clip, the shooter approaches Thompson from behind and begins firing shots. Authorities noted that he seemed to be familiar with using firearms after the weapon momentarily jammed. They described the incident as a “premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack, and recovered multiple shell casings engraved with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” — a possible allusion to terms used by health insurance companies to avoid paying claims.
Law enforcement offered $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect. In the hours and days following the attack, the NYPD shared photos of the alleged shooter on social media in hopes of locating him. One set of photos placed him wearing a face covering at a nearby Starbucks prior to the attack. Another showed him, also masked, in the backseat of a taxi cab. The best look at the shooter’s face, sans mask, came from a set of images captured at the Manhattan hostel where he was staying.
Police said that after the attack, the suspect fled the scene, first on foot and then on a bicycle. It’s believed he quickly left New York City by bus, with surveillance cameras catching him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal but not leaving it. Police officers also recovered a backpack — reportedly stuffed with Monopoly money — in Central Park that they believe belonged to the shooter
Thompson was killed less than two hours before he was scheduled to attend the annual UnitedHealth Group Investor Conference in New York. A chart from the personal finance website ValuePenguin that circulated on social media in the wake of the CEO’s death found that UnitedHealthcare denies 32 percent of all in-network claims relating to individual health insurance plans. The figure is twice the industry average.
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, recently told NBC News that prior to his death, “he said there were some people that had been threatening him.” She considered that the threats could be related to patient dissatisfaction with their UnitedHealthcare coverage. TMZ obtained police records that stated a bomb threat had recently been made targeting his house in Minneapolis, but no bomb was found on the scene and no official reports of threats were filed to local police.
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