Who is Luigi Mangione: What to know about the ‘strong person of interest’ in shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
Authorities on Monday identified a “strong person of interest” who was arrested on firearms charges and was being questioned in connection to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside his Manhattan hotel early last Wednesday.
As the manhunt for Thompson’s killer stretched into a sixth day, police had a major breakthrough in the case thanks to a tip from a McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania, who recognized 26-year-old Luigi Mangione as he was eating in the fast food joint from images of the shooting suspect that cops had circulated.
The NYPD released unmasked photos of the suspect on December 5, the day after the fatal shooting, and scoured a Manhattan hostel in the Upper West Side where the suspect was staying, in addition to Central Park where the suspect’s backpack was recovered.
Over the weekend police released additional surveillance images of the person of interest in the back of a cab.
The NYPD issued a $10,000 reward for information on the shooter, while the FBI also joined the hunt, offering an additional $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Here’s everything we know about the person of interest:
Tip from the public led police to Pennsylvania
On Monday, police responded to a tip from a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who said they saw a man who looked like the person of interest police have been searching for.
Mangione was eating in the McDonald’s when he was recognized by the employee, police said.
The 26-year-old man was taken in for questioning, and it was discovered that he was in possession of a ghost gun that matches the weapon believed to have been used in the assassination-style killing, officials said at a press conference on Monday.
The person of interest also had supresser for the gun and several fake identification cards, including a New Jersey ID that the NYPD believes was used by the gunman.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said that the man in custody matches the description of the person in the photos and that he possessed items connected to the killing.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed Mangione has been arrested on firearms charges.
He is believed to be “our person of interest,” she told the press conference, and said it was down to a “combination of old-school detective work and new age technology” as well as the public that helped lead to the arrest.
“We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and ears,” she said.
Person of interest was not on anyone’s radar
Joseph Kenny, NYPD’s chief of detectives, said that police did not have Mangione’s name prior to Monday.
He was born and raised in Maryland, and he lived in Honolulu, Hawaii until recently. He also has ties to San Francisco.
Kenny added that police believe Mangione was allegedly acting alone.
Three-page ‘manifesto’ discovered
Police said they found a three-page manifesto in Mangione’s possession when he was arrested which suggests he has “an ill will towards corporate America,” Kenny told the press conference.
The handwritten document “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.
It reportedly said “these parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” according to CNN, who cited a police official who has seen the document.
It is currently in the custody of the Altoona police.
Valedictorian at private all-boys school and Ivy League educated
Mangione attended a private all-boys school in Baltimore where he was valedictorian in 2016, according to The New York Times.
Tuition at the school is $37,690 per year, theTimes noted.
Mangione reportedly gave a speech where he described his class as “coming up with new ideas and challenging the world around it.”
The school’s head, Henry P.A. Smyth, told the newspaper: “This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.”
According to his apparent LinkedIn profile, Mangione has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
A Facebook profile matching the name of the person of interest offers a glimpse into their life, with photos of friends on the beach in Mexico, exploring the California coast, and going to soccer matches.
Person of interest gave Unabomber’s manifesto four stars on Goodreads
Mangione appears to have left a positive review for the Unabomber’s manifesto online earlier this year, and praised the killer as a “political revolutionary.”
An account under that name on book review website Goodreads, that also matches photos of the suspect on other social media platforms, gave Ted Kaczynski’s book a four-star review in January.
“Clearly written by a mathematics prodigy. Reads like a series of lemmas on the question of 21st century quality of life,” the review reads.
“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out,” the review continues.
“He was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary,” the review by an account under Mangione’s name continues.
Hundreds of hours of footage combed through
Investigators combed through hundreds of hours of video from multiple sources to find the crucial screenshot that linked them to the person of interest, Kenny told the press conference.
NYPD quickly issued surveillance images of the suspect unmasked and smiling the day after Thompson was fatally shot.
It emerged that the clear surveillence images of the person of interest where he is smiling came from a “flirtatious” moment with a female employee at the hostel where he was believed to be staying.
“They were having a flirtatious moment and he pulls it down and he gives a big smile and that one informal moment between two human beings remains at this moment the most significant clue to date in this whole case,” former NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller told CBS News last week.
Over the weekend police released a new image of the person of interest in the back of a taxi wearing a face mask.
Ghost gun found when person of interest was arrested
Police recovered a ghost gun when they arrested the person of interest and the weapon could have been made on a 3D printer.
The gun has the capability of firing a 9mm round, Kenny said.
Adams said the guns are “extremely dangerous” and more must be done “on a federal level to clamp down” on their availability.
Kenny said ballistics tests will determine whether the weapon was the one used in last week’s shooting.
