Police arrested a suspect in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a McDonald’s customer in Altoona, Pennsylvania, spotted a man who officers found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police said.
Here’s the latest:
Police say they found ‘written admissions about the crime’ in Luigi Mangione’s belongings
A felony warrant filed in New York cites Altoona Officer Christy Wasser as saying she found the writings along with a semi-automatic pistol and an apparent silencer.
The filing echoes earlier statements from NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny who said Mangione had a three-page, handwritten document that shows “some ill will toward corporate America.”
Mangione is now charged in Pennsylvania with being a fugitive of justice.
McDonald’s customer: ‘My one friend thought he looked like the shooter’
A customer at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested said one of his friends had commented beforehand that the man looked like the suspect wanted for the shooting in New York City.
“It started out almost a little bit like a joke, my one friend thought he looked like the shooter,” said the customer, who declined to give his full name, on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t really a joke, but we laughed about it,” he added.
Manhattan prosecutors have obtained a warrant for Mangione’s arrest
The warrant on murder and other charges is a step that could help expedite his extradition from Pennsylvania.
In court papers made public Tuesday, a New York City police detective reiterated key findings in the investigation he said tied Mangione to the killing, including surveillance footage and a fake ID he used to check into a Manhattan hostel on Nov. 24.
Police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, found that ID when they arrested Mangione on Monday.
Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Mangione doesn’t yet have a lawyer who can speak on his behalf, court officials said.
Pennsylvania authorities release photos of Luigi Mangione at McDonald’s and in cell
Images of Mangione released Tuesday by Pennsylvania State Police showed him pulling down his mask in the corner of the McDonald’s while holding what appeared to be hash browns and wearing a winter jacket and ski cap. In another photo from a holding cell, he stood unsmiling with rumpled hair.