A 26-year-old man has been identified as a “strong person of interest” and is being questioned by police in Pennsylvania on Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, authorities said.
The man, Luigi Mangione, was found with a gun that is similar to the one used by a masked gunman to kill the 50-year-old Thompson last Wednesday in New York City.
Mangione, a Towson, Maryland native whose last known address was in Honolulu, was found in possession of a silencer, and a mask, authorities said. He was arrested on a gun charge by Altoona, Pennsylvania, police, but has not been charged in connection with Thompson’s killing.
Sources told NBC that he also was carrying fake New Jersey identification in the name of “Marc Rosario.”
That was the same name on the fake New Jersey ID of a man who checked into a hostel in Manhattan, whom police were seeking as a person of interest in Thompson’s killing.
Combination showing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (L) and person of interest Luigi Mangione (R)
Source: UnitedHealthcare (L) | NYPD (R)
Mangione, who also has ties to San Francisco, “was carrying a three-page document which suggests, “He seems that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” New York police said.
His LinkedIn page indicates that Mangione received a bachelor’s of science in engineering, computer and information science, as well as a master of science for that concentration from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
Before his time at Penn, he graduated from the all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore, where he was a valedictorian, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Picture of the gun found on the person of interest in Altoona PA.
Source: Altoona P.D.
Mangione is a cousin of Maryland statehouse delegate Nino Mangione, whose office was preparing a statement on his arrest.
A Stanford University spokesperson said that a person with Mangione’s name was employed in 2019 as a head counselor by that university’s Pre-Collegiate Studies program.
New York police said the weapon he was carrying was a so-called “ghost gun,” which has the capability of firing a 9mm round. The gun may have been made on a 3-D printer, police said.
“We have a strong person of interest in the shooting that shook our city last week,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams at a news conference Monday.
“He matches the description of the identification that we’ve been looking for, he’s also in possession of several items that we believe connect him to this incident,” said Adams, who was flanked by the NYPD commissioner and the police department’s chief of detectives.
A copy of the fake N.J. id found on the person of interest in Altoona PA.
Source: Altoon P.D.
Police approached Mangione after receiving a tip from an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona who believed he looked suspicious.
The NYPD credited his arrest to the publication of surveillance photos of the person sought as a person of interest on the heels of Thompson’s killing.
An image of the individual sought in connection to the investigation of the shooting death of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, is seen in an undated still image from surveillance video taken in a taxi in New York City, released on Dec. 8, 2024.
NYPD News | Via Reuters
New York police are en route to Altoona.
The development in the case came on the same day that Thompson’s funeral was set to take place in Minnesota.
It is not known if the man being questioned in Altoona is the same person who has appeared in surveillance footage of a person of interest in the killing previously released by the New York Police Department.
Thompson’s company, which is a division of UnitedHealth Group, is the largest private payer of health insurance benefits in the U.S.
In a statement Monday, UHG said, “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.”
“We thank law enforcement, and we will continue to work with them on this investigation,” the company said. “We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.”
Thompson was on his way into an investor day meeting for UHG at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning when a gunman shot him from behind.
The suspect then fled the area on a bike and pedaled into nearby Central Park.
A New York City police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park near 64th Street and Central Park West in New York on Dec. 6, 2024, while searching for a backpack police believe was dropped in the park by the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024.
Ted Shaffrey | AP
The NYPD has said the suspect was spotted exiting the park on foot about 20 blocks north of the shooting scene, and that he then took a taxi north to the neighborhood of Washington Heights, where he was last seen entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal there.
Police have also said that person is believed to have arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 on a bus from Atlanta, and that he immediately went to the Hilton that same night and spent about a half hour walking around the streets nearby.
— Tom Winter of NBC News and Jonathan Dienst of WNBC contributed to this report.
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