Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in New York. He was on the run for days after the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Investigators revealed more details about Mangione who was arrested in Pa. NBC10’s Aaron Baskerville has more on his ties to Pa.
A University of Pennsylvania graduate has been charged with shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged with murder Monday night after being arrested at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
The arrest ended a dayslong manhunt that captured the nation's attention.
Murder of Brian Thompson
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On Dec. 4, 2024, at 6:44 a.m., a gunman shot and killed Thompson as the executive arrived at the New York Hilton Midtown.
Investigators said the gunman entered Central Park by bicycle immediately after the shooting. Police later found the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written in permanent marker on ammunition at the scene. The words mimic a phrase used by insurance industry critics.
On Dec. 6, officials announced they believed the gunman left New York City on a bus. They said he entered the George Washington Bus Station but couldn’t find video of him leaving or getting on a bus. They also found a backpack that they believed belonged to the gunman.
Once in Pennsylvania, the gunman traveled from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to stay low-profile” by avoiding cameras, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said.
Altoona is located approximately 237 miles from Philadelphia and 233 miles from New York City.
On Dec. 9, at 9:14 a.m., police were called to the McDonald’s restaurant on 407 East Plank Road in Altoona, Pennsylvania, for a report of a suspicious man wearing a medical mask and beanie hat who resembled the suspected gunman in Thompson’s murder, according to a criminal complaint.
When police arrived, they found a man wearing a blue medical mask sitting in the back of the restaurant and looking at a silver laptop computer on a table, investigators said. He also had a backpack on the floor near the table.
The officers approached the man and told him to pull down his medical mask. The man pulled it down and the officers recognized him as the suspected gunman, according to the criminal complaint. The officers asked him for his ID and he gave them a New Jersey Driver’s license with the name “Mark Rosario” on it, investigators said.
Sources had said the gunman in the shooting used a fake New Jersey ID with the same name "Mark Rosario" when he checked into a Manhattan hostel in November, prior to the deadly shooting.
When he pulled his mask down “we knew that was our guy,” rookie Officer Tyler Frye said at a news conference in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
When one of the officers asked the man if he had been to New York recently, he became quiet and started to shake, according to the criminal complaint. More officers arrived as police ran the license through the dispatch center. After not finding any available records for the license, one of the officers warned the man that he would be arrested if he lied about his identity, investigators said.
The man then identified himself as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, according to the criminal complaint. Police said the ID he gave them was fake and when asked why he lied about his name, Mangione replied by saying, “I clearly shouldn’t have,” investigators said.
Mangione was then arrested and taken to the Altoona Police Department. During a search of his backpack, police found a black 3D-printed pistol and a black 3D-printed silencer, according to the criminal complaint. The weapon had a metal slide and a plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel, investigators said. The pistol also had one loaded Glock magazine with six nine-millimeter full metal jacket rounds, according to the criminal complaint.
Investigators said they also found one loose nine-millimeter hollow point round.
He was taken to the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, early Monday evening. He was initially charged with forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, tampering with records or identification, instruments of crime and false identification to law enforcement.
By late Monday evening, prosecutors in Manhattan had added a charge of murder, according to an online court docket. He's expected to be extradited to New York eventually.
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 condition 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 respect 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 cash — $2,000 of it in foreign currency. Mangione disputed the amount.
'He is no hero.' Gov. Shapiro condemns Brian Thompson's killer
During a Monday evening press conference at the Blair County Courthouse, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised the person who reported Mangione to police as well as the officers who took him into custody.
"A Pennsylvania resident saw something early this morning at McDonald's and said something to our local police," Shapiro said. "And our local police here in Altoona acted swiftly."
Shapiro also condemned those who praised Thompson's murder, which sparked a national discourse about the current issues in the United States healthcare system.
"In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint. I understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system and I have worked to address that throughout my career," Shapiro said. "But I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most."
Shapiro also criticized those who have called Mangione a "hero."
"Hear me on this. He is no hero," Shapiro said. "The real hero is the person who called 911 at McDonald's this morning. The real heroes every day in our society are the women and men who put on uniforms like these and go out in our communities to keep us safe. This killer was not a hero. He should not be hailed."
Shapiro also called on the public to show respect for Thompson and his family.
"As the conversation continues about this case, let's be mindful not to dehumanize him and make him just an avatar of a system that is disliked by many," Shapiro said. "He was a father. He was a husband. And he did not deserve to die like this on a sidewalk in New York City."
What we know about Luigi Mangione
Police said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and also has connections to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii, investigators said.
A grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist, Mangione is a cousin of a current Maryland state legislator.
Mangione graduated in 2016 as valedictorian from Gilman School, an elite all-boys high school in Baltimore, Maryland, where his 2016 graduation speech lauded his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”
He then attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he graduated in 2020, according to a spokesperson for the school.
The spokesperson told NBC10 Mangione received both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Science in Engineering, majoring in computer science and minoring in mathematics.
During his time at Penn, Mangione started a student club called "Upgrade," which focused on game research and development environment. A 2018 Penn Today article on the club states that Mangione learned how to code in high school because he wanted to create video games.
Mangione said in the article that he and another student created Upgrade because the school didn't have a student-run video game development club.
Mangione was also a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, according to his Instagram account. No one came to the door at the fraternity when NBC10 went to the location on Dec. 9.
Mangione worked for a time 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.
His family put out a statement Monday evening responding to news of his arrest.
"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news," a statement signed by the "Mangione Family" said.
A Statement From The Mangione Family Regarding Luigi Mangione pic.twitter.com/6E6E2CfgFv
— Nino Mangione (@NinoMangione42) December 10, 2024
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