Police gather outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
ALTOONA, Penn. — Police in Altoona, Pennsylvania arrested a suspect Monday in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York, authorities announced.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man arrested as Luigi Mangione, 26, with ties to Philadelphia and whose last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione was in possession of what New York police described as a “ghost gun” made with a 3D printer and a “handwritten document that speaks to his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.
Mangione was arrested while eating breakfast at a McDonalds where he was recognized by an employee, police said. The New York Police Department has published images from surveillance cameras showing the suspect’s face.
Tisch said Mangione was also carrying a U.S. passport and multiple false IDs including a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the one the suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident.
Police also recovered clothing including a mask Tisch said was consistent with those worn by the person sought in connection with Thompson’s killing.
A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia confirmed that Mangione is a graduate of the university’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs, where he studied computer science. A LinkedIn profile in Mangione’s name says he has worked as a data engineer for a Santa Monica, California, online auto sales marketplace.
Mangione comes from a large and high-profile family in the Baltimore area, with branches of the family that own the Turf Valley and Hayfields country clubs in Ellicott City and WCBM Radio, among other businesses, the Capital-Star’s sibling publication Maryland Matters reported.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore reported that Luigi Mangione was valedictorian of the Class of 2016 at the Gilman School and later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. The office of Del. Nino Mangione (R-Baltimore County) confirmed to the TV station that the lawmaker is a cousin.
Nino Mangione, a radio host at WCBM who was elected to the General Assembly in 2018, did not immediately respond to calls and an email from Maryland Matters seeking comment Monday. The Gilman School did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that Luigi Mangione was a student there.
The arrest Monday was the result of “tireless work of the greatest detectives in the world,” Tisch said, who reviewed thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed forensic evidence. The NYPD also deployed assets including scuba divers, drones and electronic surveillance systems.
“This combination of old school detective work and new age technology is what led to this result today,” Tisch said, adding that the media and the public played a crucial role. “We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Mangione had no prior criminal record and that police believe he attended college in Pennsylvania.
Mangione was being held on Pennsylvania weapons charges and NYPD detectives were en route to Altoona, nearly 300 miles from New York, to interview him, Kenny said.
Kenny said the document Mangione had when he was arrested is in the possession of Altoona police. They did not believe there were specific threats to other people mentioned in the document, “but it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.
Thompson, 50, was shot several times by a person who authorities believe was lying in wait early Wednesday morning outside the Manhattan hotel where United HealthCare was holding an investors meeting.
Thompson had been CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest for-profit health insurance providers, for nearly three years. His killing has prompted an outpouring of criticism of the company and the United States’ health care system generally for denying or unnecessarily complicating medical treatment.
Kenny said the gun in Mangione’s possession appeared to be made using a 3D printer and was capable of firing 9 mm ammunition. Mangione was being held in Pennsylvania on weapons charges and would need to be extradited to New York.
A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts said it would release charging documents as they become available.
(This article was updated at 4:20 p.m., Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, with additional information about Mangione.)
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.