Police arrested a 26-year-old man on Monday on firearm costs and publicly recognized him as an individual of curiosity within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the manager gunned down on a busy midtown Manhattan sidewalk final week.
The New York Police Division mentioned the person was being held close to Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an worker at an area McDonald’s thought the regarded suspicious and known as police.
“Right now he’s believed to be our particular person of curiosity within the brazen, focused homicide of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare final Wednesday in midtown Manhattan,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned at a press convention alongside Mayor Eric Adams.
Tisch recognized the particular person of curiosity as Luigi Mangione. The commissioner mentioned he had a three-page manifesto on his individual that speaks to his attainable alleged “motivation and mindset” within the killing.
“We do not suppose there’s any particular threats to different individuals talked about in that doc, but it surely does appear that he has some unwell will in direction of company American,” Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny mentioned.
As soon as on the police station, police mentioned, officers found the person had a gun much like the one utilized in Thompson’s killing, in addition to a silencer and a pretend New Jersey ID. The suspected gunman allegedly used a pretend New Jersey ID when he checked right into a Manhattan hostel final month, sources had mentioned.
Mangione had a ghost gun, a sort of weapon that may be assembled at residence from components and not using a serial quantity, making them tough to hint, investigators mentioned. He has not been charged presently.
Two senior legislation enforcement officers mentioned the person in Altoona being questioned had the identify “Mark Rosario” on his pretend NJ ID. Three sources aware of the matter mentioned the suspected gunman checked into the hostel utilizing a pretend NJ ID with the identify “Mark Rosario.”
Mangione reportedly graduated in 2016 as valedictorian from Gilman College, an all-boys highschool in Baltimore, Maryland.
Kenny mentioned the 26-year-old was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and a final identified tackle in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Monitoring a killer
Aided by surveillance cameras on almost each constructing and block, police have been in a position to retrace the shooter’s actions.
They know he ambushed Thompson at 6:44 a.m. as the manager arrived on the Hilton for his firm’s annual investor convention, utilizing a 9 mm pistol that resembled the weapons farmers use to place down animals with out inflicting a loud noise. They know ammunition discovered close to Thompson’s physique bore the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking a phrase utilized by insurance coverage business critics.
Kenny mentioned the truth that the shooter knew UnitedHealthcare group was holding a convention on the resort and what route Thompson may take to get there prompt that he may probably be a disgruntled worker or shopper.
Investigators know from surveillance video that the shooter fled into Central Park on a bicycle and ditched it round 7 a.m. close to eighty fifth Avenue.
He then walked a pair blocks and received right into a taxi, arriving at 7:30 a.m. on the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is close to the northern tip of Manhattan and affords commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington.
Investigators do not know what occurred subsequent. They’re looking by extra surveillance video however have but to find video of the shooter getting on a bus or exiting the station.
Police have decided from video that the gunman was within the metropolis for 10 days earlier than the capturing. He arrived at Manhattan’s most important bus terminal on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta, although it isn’t clear whether or not he embarked there or at certainly one of a couple of half-dozen stops alongside the route.
Instantly after that, he took a cab to the neighborhood of the Hilton and was there for a couple of half hour, Kenny mentioned.
At round 11 p.m. on the evening he arrived, he glided by taxi to the HI New York Metropolis Hostel. It was there, whereas talking with an worker within the foyer, that he briefly pulled down the masks and smiled, giving investigators the temporary glimpse they’re now counting on to establish and seize a killer.
NYPD detectives traveled to Atlanta to coordinate efforts there.