CEO shooting latest: Mangione charged with murder

ByKevin Shalvey ABCNews logo
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Booking photo of Luigi Mangione after he was arrested by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Dec. 9, 2024.
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Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, according to an online court docket.

Mangione, a 26-year-old from Maryland, was arrested by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, for gun charges ahead of him being charged by the New York Police Department on Monday.

The NYPD also charged Mangione for possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the docket.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office confirmed the charges.

The forged instrument is the fake NJ driver's license he allegedly used to check into the hostel on the Upper West Side. Mangione remains in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections pending his extradition to New York.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections released Mangione's mug shot on Monday evening.

In Pennyslvania, Mangione was charged with five crimes, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing "instruments of crime," according to a criminal complaint.

The charging document alleges that Mangione lied about his identity to police and carried the ghost gun without a license.

When Altoona police asked him if he had ever been to New York City, Mangione started shaking, according to the charging document. He didn't answer the question directly, police said.

Mangione was on a Greyhound bus traveling through Altoona on Monday morning, sources said, when he got off and walked into a McDonald's where a witness recognized him from the images of the suspect circulated by police.

Mangione was sitting and eating when a McDonald's employee reported him, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

"He matches the description of the person we are looking for," Adams said.

A customer thought Mangione looked suspiciously like the shooting suspect and alerted the employee, who called police, authorities said.

Adams said they believed we had a "strong person of interest" in the shooting death. Officials later confirmed during a news briefing in Altoona Monday night that Mangione is now a suspect in the killing.

Mangione had a ghost gun capable of firing a 9 mm round and a suppressor, police said. The gun and suppressor were "consistent with the weapon used in the murder," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The gun "may have been made on a 3D printer," police said.

Mangione also had a three-page handwritten document "that speaks to his motivation and mindset," Tisch said.

"It does seem that he had some ill will toward corporate America," police said.

Authorities are going through his writings more thoroughly to understand his motive.

Mangione also had multiple fake IDs with him, including a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID the suspect used to check into a hostel in New York City before the shooting, Tisch said.

He was carrying a U.S. passport that identified him as Luigi Mangione, police said.

Police also recovered clothes, including a mask, "consistent with those worn by our wanted individual," Tisch said.

Police said it appears Mangione, a 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, acted alone and they did not have his name before now.

Authorities said they're working to trace his movements from New York City to Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he was traveling between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with stops in between, including in Altoona.

Police said they are working to develop a full sense of his timeline in Pennsylvania and how long he has been in Altoona.

Shapiro thanked the individual at McDonald's "who acted as a hero."

"I want to ask all of our fellow Pennsylvanians to demonstrate the same type of thoughtfulness and courage and smarts as the individual at McDonald's did this morning and help law enforcement here in Pennsylvania as we continue with our investigation," Shapiro said during a press briefing Monday evening.

He also thanked the Altoona police who "acted swiftly" to apprehend Mangione.

Shapiro lamented how some online have celebrated rather than condemned Thompson's killing.

"I understand people have real frustration with our health care system," Shapiro said. "This killer is not a hero. He should not be hailed."

A UnitedHealth Group spokesperson said in a statement Monday, "Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation."

On Wednesday morning, the masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson's company was holding an investors conference.

Tisch described the attack as "brazen" and "targeted."

New video obtained by ABC News shows the killer waiting for Thompson moments before the shooting.

The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire. The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson because he loitered while others wandered by.

Right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.

An "enormous amount of forensic evidence" has been recovered, as well as "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours" of video, police said Monday.

On Sunday, members of the New York Police Department's dive team searched underwater in Central Park near the Bethesda Fountain. Nothing was found, police said.

The suspect's backpack -- with a jacket and Monopoly money inside -- was found nearby in Central Park.

ABC News' Bill Hutchinson, Jon Haworth, Ivan Pereira and David Brennan contributed to this report.

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