A ‘person of interest’ in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson appeared defiant in his mugshot and exiting a police car after being arrested at a McDonald’s.
Luigi Mangione, 26, wore a dark shirt with lettering in small print and jeans and kept his mouth closed with no expression as cops led him, with his hands cuffed behind his back, to Blair County Courthouse on Monday evening.
A mugshot released shortly after by the Altoona Police Department showed Mangione with curly dark hair wearing a black scarf and a black jacket over a green jacket, and with his chin slightly up while standing in front of a white brick wall.
Mangione was arrested on gun charges at a McDonald’s in Altoona, which is 277 miles west of New York City, and was escorted into court after 6pm ET.
He has been hit with five charges in Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, possessing ‘instruments of crime’, falsely identifying himself to authorities and forgery, stated a criminal complaint. Two of the charges are felonies around the firearm and using a false ID, and the other three are misdemeanors.
During his arraignment, Mangione said he did not have a history of mental health issues or drugs, The New York Times reported. He disputed the judge’s claims that he used a case that hid his electronic signals and that he was carrying $8,000 and more in foreign currency. Magione said he was speaking with his family ‘until recently’.
Magione was denied bond.
He was not represented by a lawyer and asked the judge if he could reply later if he wanted to retain a private attorney or a public defender.
Mangione was recognized by a McDonald’s employee and was reading a book, said New York Police Department chief of detectives Joseph Kenny during a press conference on Monday afternoon.
When a cop approached him at the fast food restaurant, he was wearing a blue medical mask and had a laptop with him. Mangione ‘became quiet and started to shake’ when asked if he had been to New York in recent days, according to the complaint.
Mangione is set to be extradited to New York to face other charges, possibly including murder.
He possessed a manifesto at the time he was taken into custody. It mentioned UnitedHealthcare and the size of the company and its profits, and condemned healthcare companies in general for prioritizing making money over caring for patients, a senior law enforcement official who saw the document told The Times.
The manifesto included the phrases, ‘I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done’, and, ‘These parasites had it coming’.
Mangione was taken into custody with a black 3D-printed pistol and a silencer in his backpack, stated the complaint.
The ghost gun could fire a 9-millimeter bullet.
Earlier, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the man in custody appeared to match the description of a suspect who has been pictured in the manhunt for Thompson’s killer.
‘We have a strong person of interest in the shooting that shook our city,’ said Adams on Monday afternoon.
The suspect also had a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one that the suspected gunman used to check in at an Upper West Side 10 days before the killing, said NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Based on the three-page document that Mangione was carrying, ‘it does seem he has some ill will toward corporate America’, Kenny said.
‘We believe he was acting alone,’ added Kenny.
A photo of the suspect that showed his face without a mask was key in taking in the person of interest, he said.
The arrest happened with a ‘combination of old-school detective work and new age technology’ and ‘we should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and ears’, said Tisch.
A social media profile of man named Luigi Mangione stated that he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 with engineering degrees.
Mangione attended the private all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore and in his 2016 valedictorian speech said his class was ‘coming up with new ideas and challenging the world around it’, The Times reported.
He thanked his parents for having him at the high school which was ‘far from a small financial investment’.
Mangione had no criminal record in New York, according to Kenny. He was born in Maryland and had ties to San Francisco and had lived in Honolulu.
A UnitedHealthcare spokesperson stated: ‘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 will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.’
Thompson was shot outside a New York City Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, sparking a huge manhunt for the masked gunman.
Investigators released a CCTV picture of a suspect, showing a hooded man with a wide smile on his face.
A ‘handwritten manifesto’ that criticised healthcare companies for putting profit above care was found on him, police officials added.
Officers then discovered the man had a ghost gun, which is one jumbled together with parts sold online.
Mangione was taken into custody as the nationwide manhunt across state borders, with the FBI involved, entered the sixth day.
Pictures of the suspect released by the police earlier appear to show him in the backseat of a New York City taxi along with previous CCTV footage showing him at a hostel where he was pictured smiling with his face mask down.
Evidence from the scene includes bullet shell casings with words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’, which are part of the title of a book on why health insurance companies do not pay patients’ claims.
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