Suspected Assassin of Health Insurance Boss Nabbed in Pennsylvania

The NYPD believe they’ve found the person behind the brazen shooting outside a UnitedHealthcare shareholder meeting in Midtown Manhattan. 

The NYPD released an image of the suspect in the fatal Midtown shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. -Photo by NYPD

This article originally appeared in The City. 

By Gwynne Hogan

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NEW YORK - NYPD officials say the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is in custody in Pennsylvania after evading arrest for more than five days. 

An employee at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Penn., recognized the suspected gunman from photos that had been circulated widely by police and called local authorities. He was identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a press conference at City Hall Monday afternoon with Mayor Eric Adams. 

“He is believed to be our person of interest in the brazen targeted murder of Brian Thompson,” Tisch said. 

Police in Altoona found Mangione with a gun and silencer similar to the weapon used in Thompson’s murder, as well as a mask similar to the one worn by the killer, multiple fake IDs and a U.S. passport, Tisch said, along with a handwritten document that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” 

Pressed for details on the contents of the note, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the NYPD had yet to review it as they were still en route to Altoona to question Mangione but added, “it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America.”

Police officials said Mangione grew up in Maryland, most recently lived in Hawaii and had no prior arrests that they could locate. 

Tale of Two Murders

Thompson’s targeted killing early morning on Dec. 4 outside the New York Hilton ahead of a planned gathering for investors rocked New York City and the nation, triggering a massive manhunt.

Investigators said they believed the killer fled the scene on a bike before disappearing in Central Park and later making his way to the Port Authority, where he was believed to have left the city on a bus. 

Authorities later said ammunition found at the scene had been etched with the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend,” a seeming reference to United Healthcare’s policy of denying claims. A backpack they later retrieved in Central Park thought to be the killers was filled with Monopoly money.  

The killing triggered an outpouring of health care horror stories on social media about people left with crippling medical debt after their claims were denied while the company raked in $32 billion in profits last year. 

During Monday’s press briefing, Tisch described the lengths detectives had gone to track down Thompson’s suspected killer. 

“Our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed every bit of forensic evidence,” she said. “We deployed drones, canine units and scuba divers.”

A reporter asked if similar resources were being expended to track down the killer of 17-year-old Yeremi Colino, a teen living at a migrant shelter who was fatally stabbed in Lower Manhattan the day after Thomson’s killing. 

The unprovoked attack reportedly began after Colino and another teen, who was also stabbed but survived, were asked if they spoke English. Police haven’t yet released photos of potential suspects. 

Adams, who used the hastily arranged press conference as the occasion for the once-a-week “off topic” sessions where he takes questions from reporters, declined to provide an update on the Colino case. 

“Any loss is a huge, huge loss,” Adams said, adding only that that investigation “is currently receiving the necessary manpower to bring the person to justice.”