Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing charged with murder in recent York, court records display

ALTOONA, Pa. — After UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was gunned down on a recent York sidewalk, police searched for the masked gunman with dogs, drones and scuba divers. Officers used the 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 loan with an alert civilian’s instincts. A Pennsylvania McDonald’s customer noticed another patron who resembled the man in the oblique safety-camera photos that recent York police had publicized.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-ancient Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate household, was arrested Monday in the killing of Brian Thompson, who headed one of the United States’ largest medical insurance companies.

He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing untrue identification to police. By late evening, prosecutors in Manhattan had added a expense of murder, according to an online court docket. He’s expected to be extradited to recent York eventually.

It’s ambiguous whether 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.”

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after the McDonald’s customer recognized him and notified an employee, authorities said. Police in Altoona, about 233 miles (375 kilometers) west of recent York City, were soon summoned.

They arrived to discover Mangione sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, according to a Pennsylvania police criminal complaint.

He initially gave them a fake ID, but when an officer asked Mangione whether he’d been to recent York recently, he “became silent and started to shake,” the complaint says.

When he pulled his mask down at officers’ request, “we knew that was our guy,” rookie Officer Tyler Frye said at a information conference in Hollidaysburg.

recent York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Manhattan information conference that Mangione was carrying a gun like the one used to kill Thompson and the same fake ID the shooter had used to check into a recent York hostel, along with a passport and other fraudulent IDs.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione also had a three-page, handwritten document that shows “some ill will toward corporate America.”

A law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke with The Associated Press on state of anonymity said the document included a line in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.

“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do regard what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official.

It also had a line that said, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”

Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 in funds — $2,000 of it in foreign funds. Mangione disputed the amount.

Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday as he walked alone to a midtown Manhattan hotel for an investor conference. Police quickly came to view the shooting as a targeted attack by a gunman who appeared to wait for Thompson, came up behind him and fired a 9 mm pistol.

Investigators have said “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on ammunition found near Thompson’s body. The words mimic a phrase used to judge the insurance industry.

From surveillance video, recent York investigators gathered that the shooter fled by bike into Central Park, emerged, then took a taxi to a northern Manhattan bus terminal.

Once in Pennsylvania, he went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to remain low-profile” by avoiding cameras, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said.

A grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist, Mangione is a cousin of a current Maryland state legislator. Mangione was valedictorian at his elite Baltimore prep school, where his 2016 graduation talk lauded his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try recent things.”

He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson said.

“Our household is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s household said in a statement posted on social media late Monday by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione. “We propose our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson and we inquire people to pray for all involved.”

Luigi Nicholas Mangione worked for a period for the car-buying website TrueCar and left in 2023, CEO Jantoon Reigersman said by email.

From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of Honolulu tourist mecca Waikiki.

Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin.

“Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.”

At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, from surfing to romance, Ryan said.

“He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym.

Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment.

Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago.

Although the gunman obscured his face during the shooting, he left a trail of evidence in recent York, including a backpack he ditched in Central Park, a cellphone found in a pedestrian plaza, a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper.

In the days after the shooting, the NYPD collected hundreds of hours of surveillance video and released multiple clips and still images in hopes of enlisting the community’s eyes to assist discover a suspect.

“This combination of ancient-school detective work and recent-age technology is what led to this outcome today,” Tisch said at the recent York information conference.

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Scolforo reported from Altoona and Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Contributing were Associated Press writers Cedar Attanasio and Jennifer Peltz in recent York; Michael Rubinkam and Maryclaire Dale in Pennsylvania; Lea Skene in Baltimore and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu.