The Latest: UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect is charged with murder in recent York City

Police arrested a suspect in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a McDonald’s customer in Altoona, Pennsylvania, spotted a man who officers found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-ancient Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate household, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as writings suggesting rage with corporate America, police said.

Here’s the latest:

A customer at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested said one of his friends had commented beforehand that the man looked like the suspect wanted for the shooting in recent York City.

“It started out almost a little bit like a joke, my one partner thought he looked like the shooter,” said the customer, who declined to provide his packed name, on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t really a joke, but we laughed about it,” he added.

The warrant on murder and other charges is a step that could assist expedite his extradition from Pennsylvania.

In court papers made community Tuesday, a recent York City police detective reiterated key findings in the investigation he said tied Mangione to the killing, including surveillance footage and a fake ID he used to check into a Manhattan hostel on Nov. 24.

Police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, found that ID when they arrested Mangione on Monday.

Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing untrue identification to police. Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Mangione doesn’t yet have a lawyer who can talk on his behalf, court officials said.

Images of Mangione released Tuesday by Pennsylvania State Police showed him pulling down his mask in the corner of the McDonald’s while holding what appeared to be hash browns and wearing a winter jacket and ski cap. In another photo from a holding cell, he stood unsmiling with rumpled hair.

Mangione’s cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione, announced Tuesday morning that he’s postponing a fundraiser planned later this week at the Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore, which was purchased by the Mangione household in 1986.

“Because of the nature of this terrible circumstance involving my Cousin I do not depend it is appropriate to hold my donation collection occurrence scheduled for this Thursday at Hayfields,” Nino Mangione said in a social media post. “I desire to thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and back. My household and I are heartbroken and inquire that you recall the household of Mr. Thompson in your prayers. Thank you.”

Officers used recent York City’s muscular surveillance structure. Investigators analyzed DNA samples, fingerprints and internet addresses. Police went door to door looking for witnesses.

When an arrest came five days later, those sprawling investigative efforts shared borrowing with an alert civilian’s instincts. A customer at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania noticed another patron who resembled the man in the oblique safety-camera photos recent York police had publicized.

He remains jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing untrue identification to police. By late Monday evening, prosecutors in Manhattan had added a fee of murder, according to an online court docket.

It’s ambiguous whether Luigi Nicholas Mangione has an attorney who can comment on the allegations. Asked at Monday’s arraignment whether he needed a community defender, Mangione asked whether he could “respond that at a upcoming date.”