NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione, the suspect within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson exterior a New York City lodge, is now charged with homicide, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
The New York City Police Department and Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday the 26-year-old was taken into custody earlier within the day on forgery and illegal gun charges in Pennsylvania. At the time, he was nonetheless thought-about an individual of curiosity within the case.
“He matches the outline of the identification we have been searching for. He’s additionally in possession of a number of objects that we consider will join him to this incident,” Adams stated Monday. “How did we do it? Good quaint police work.”
The homicide cost begins the extradition course of again to New York that might take days or perhaps weeks. Police consider Mangione had been touring round Pennsylvania within the days after Thompson was killed, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to Altoona, the place he was acknowledged earlier Monday by a buyer.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated a tipster known as police after seeing a person who regarded like the suspect at a McDonald’s.
“The suspect was in a McDonald’s and was acknowledged by an worker who then known as native police. Responding officers questioned the suspect, who was appearing suspiciously and was carrying a number of fraudulent IDs, in addition to a U.S. passport,” she stated. “Upon additional investigation, officers recovered a firearm on his particular person, in addition to a suppressor, each in step with the weapon used within the homicide. They additionally recovered clothes, together with a masks, in step with these warn by our needed particular person.”
“Additionally, officers recovered a handwritten doc that speaks to each his motivation and mindset,” Tisch added.
NYPD officers described the weapon as a potential “ghost gun,” and stated the written doc was three pages lengthy.
Tisch stated Mangione was additionally present in possession of the identical fake New Jersey ID the person of interest used to check into a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the place he was seen in surveillance images without a mask. He was later seen on the Port Authority bus terminal in Washington Heights and was believed to have boarded a bus there after the capturing.
UnitedHealthcare CEO shot and killed in Manhattan
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP through Getty Images/United Health Group
Thompson, 50, was gunned down by a masked shooter on Dec. 4 exterior the Hilton Midtown lodge, the place UnitedHealthcare was set to hold its annual investors conference.
The NYPD known as it a “premeditated, preplanned, focused assault,” and launched an intense manhunt. Police supplied a $10,000 reward for data resulting in an arrest, and the FBI later upped the ante to $50,000.
Investigators rapidly started piecing collectively a timeline of the shooting, including the suspect’s movements and escape route. The subsequent day, police launched photographs of an individual needed for questioning, as they zeroed in on the hostel the place he was staying.
NYPD
Police had quite a few clues early on within the investigation. They had been capable of hint the suspect’s actions previous to the capturing and his escape by bicycle by means of Central Park.
Investigators spent days looking out the park and located a backpack containing a jacket and Monopoly cash, nevertheless it didn’t have the homicide weapon. Dive groups in scuba gear continued to comb a pond close to the park’s Bethesda Fountain for the gun.
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Police additionally discovered expended shells on the scene that had “delay” and “deny” meticulously written on them. Investigators consider these phrases had been associated to a reference made by critics of the health insurance industry.
Officers additionally recovered a cellphone from the scene, in addition to a water bottle and a sweet bar wrapper they consider the suspect left at a Starbucks previous to the capturing.
Meanwhile, investigators have been probing each facet of Thompson’s life to attempt to discover a motive.
“They’re going to have a look at the enterprise finish, you’ve gotten an organization that is laid folks off. They’re going to have a look at the private tales, and they will concentrate on letters, determined individuals who had been denied care or exams or one thing that might’ve saved a life or who blame the corporate,” stated former NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller.
Thompson, a married father of two, had been in New York City for 2 days earlier than he was murdered. His spouse, Paulette, spoke concerning the household’s loss.
“Brian was an exquisite particular person with a giant coronary heart and who lived life to the fullest,” she stated. “He will likely be enormously missed by everyone. Our hearts are damaged and we’re utterly devastated by this information.”
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contributed to this report.
