Law enforcement officials arrested and identified a suspect on Monday in connection with last week’s assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
During a Monday afternoon press conference, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified 26-year-old Luigi Mangione as the “person of interest in the brazen, targeted murder” of the UnitedHealthcare CEO outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan, last Wednesday. Tisch said the suspect was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning.
“The suspect was in a McDonald’s and was recognized by an employee who then called local police,” Tisch said. “Responding officers questioned the suspect, who was acting suspiciously and was carrying multiple fraudulent IDs as well as a U.S. passport.”
Tisch added that law enforcement officials also discovered that the suspect had a firearm and a suppressor, which were “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder.”
According to Fox News, Tisch said law enforcement officials discovered a “fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the ID our suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting” as well as a “handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.”
Fox News reported that New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the suspect’s document indicated that he had “ill will towards corporate America.” A police official who reviewed the document told Fox News that the document said, “These parasites had it coming,” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.” Fox News also reported that the document indicated that the suspect acted alone in last week’s fatal shooting incident and that the suspect was self-funded.
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According to Fox News, Mangione graduated at the top of his class from Gilman School, which is an elite private school located in Baltimore, Maryland. A former classmate of the suspect told Fox News that Mangione “wasn’t crazy,” adding, “He seemed like a smart kid, he was always doing the right thing, it seemed like.”
Pictures of Mangione were shared on X, formerly Twitter, following the suspect’s arrest on Monday.