What happened
Police arrested 26-year-old Luigi Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday after identifying him as the suspect in last week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel. Manhattan prosecutors charged Mangione with second-degree murder and several gun-related charges.
Who said what
A McDonald’s customer recognized Mangione from police photos and had an employee call 911, court documents said. Altoona police found a 3D-printed “ghost gun” and silencer in Mangione’s backpack, along with cash, a passport and a three-page handwritten document that showed “some ill will toward corporate America,” New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday. Mangione’s note reportedly said he “wasn’t working with anyone,” and “it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the gun was “consistent with the weapon used in the murder” and a fake New Jersey ID Mangione carried matched one the suspect had used to check into a New York hostel.
Mangione, part of a wealthy Maryland real estate family, was 2016 valedictorian of his elite all-boys high school and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. He worked in the tech industry after graduating. According to friends and former roommates in Hawaii, Mangione started suffering debilitating back pain, underwent spinal surgery in 2023 and then “suddenly and inexplicably stopped communicating” with family and friends six months ago, The New York Times said. “Those six months will most likely become a focus for investigators.”
What next?
Mangione “remained jailed in Pennsylvania” and is “expected to be extradited to New York eventually,” The Associated Press said.