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The fact that CEO’s alleged killer still has the weapon shows his ‘arrogance,’ former NY police lieutenant says
Former NY police lieutenant Joe Cardinale unpacks the investigation into the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on ‘America Reports.’
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ALTOONA, Pa. – Police have identified a 26-year-old Maryland man as the suspect in last week’s assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot from behind outside a New York City Hilton hotel hours before a shareholder conference Wednesday.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday morning after a McDonald’s employee spotted him and thought he matched the suspect on a wanted poster. Police responded to the location for reports of a person matching the description of the man wanted for questioning in Thompson’s murder, but Altoona police said they initially took him into custody on unrelated charges.
High-level law enforcement sources told Fox News and Fox News Digital that he had a “ghost gun” similar to the suspected murder weapon, a suppressor and a fake ID in his possession when taken into custody. The Associated Press also reported he had writings critical of the healthcare industry.
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Luigi Mangione pictured in a Facebook photo. Mangione was taken into custody in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday morning in connection with the ambush murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. (Luigi Mangione/Facebook)
Mangione graduated from the elite Gilman School, a private high school in Baltimore, at the top of his class. Video of his graduation ceremony shows he delivered the commencement speech, where he thanked his parents and his classmates’ parents for making the investment.
“He seemed like a smart kid, he was always doing the right thing, it seemed like,” a former classmate told Fox News Digital Monday. “Wasn’t crazy.”
He said the news came as a shock when he heard of the arrest.
Luigi Mangione poses with a McDonald’s meal in a Facebook photograph posted on Aug. 24, 2019. He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday in connection with the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Luigi Mangione/Facebook)
“It’s not like he wasn’t outgoing, or introverted,” he said. Nice kid, always had a smile on his face. Never really got the vibes of him being socially awkward. So that’s why I’m really surprised. I graduated in 2015; he graduated in 2016, It’s crazy how 10, nine years later, how people can change.”
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This undated photo provided by UnitedHealth Group shows UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via A)
In a statement, the Gilman School called the assassination an “awful situation.”
“Luigi Mangione’s suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation,” a spokesperson told Fox News. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students.”
Mangione went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with bachelor and master’s degrees in engineering and was part of the Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society for Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Mangione was active on social media, with accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram. Posts discussed a range of interests, including artificial intelligence and social commentary.
His criminal record includes a December 2023 misdemeanor case in Honolulu, Hawaii, for trespassing at the Nuuanu Pali Lookout.
He was a periodic poster on Goodreads, the literature-focused social media site, where he wrote a review for a book by the Unabomber Ted Kaczysnki.
“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” he wrote. “But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.”
Writing about Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future,” he quoted another online “take that [he] found interesting.”
“When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive,” he wrote. “You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”
A screenshot from surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows an alleged person of interest wanted in connection of the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (NYPD Crime Stoppers )
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference Monday that “He matches the description of the identification we’ve been looking for” and that he is “in possession of several items that we believe will connect him to this incident.”
Fox News’ Greg Norman, Brooke Curto, Julia Bonavita and Lillian LeCroy contributed to this report.