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Topics: Business, Crime, True Crime, US News, World News, Luigi Mangione, New York
Anish Vij
Topics: Business, Crime, True Crime, US News, World News, Luigi Mangione, New York
Luigi Mangione has been charged with the murder of Brian Thompson after the UnitedHealthcare CEO was shot dead last week.
The 26-year-old, originally from Maryland, was spotted by a McDonald's employee who alerted law enforcement that someone who looked like the suspect had entered the Pennsylvania restaurant.
He was subsequently taken into custody at around 9.15am on Monday (9 December).
As well as the murder charge, Mangione has been charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
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Thompson, 50, who took on the CEO role at UnitedHealthcare in 2021, was killed by a masked gunman outside the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan last Wednesday (4 December), at around 6:46 am local time.
He was shot at least once in the back and once in the calf and was then taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The suspected shooter fled the scene with the help of an e-bike in Central Park, ditching it around 7.00am near 85th Street.
Officers found a backpack in Central Park on Friday, believed to belong to the shooter.
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Inside the bag was Monopoly money, which sparked a bizarre theory of what he planned to do with it.
Images of the suspect from inside a taxi and a Starbucks were also captured and used as evidence.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica Tisch said: "The suspect was in a McDonald's and was recognised by an employee who then called local police.
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"Responding officers questioned the suspect, who was acting suspiciously and was carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a US passport.
"Upon further investigation, officers recovered a firearm on his person, as well as a suppressor, both consistent with the weapon used in the murder.
"They also recovered clothing, including a mask, consistent with those worn by our wanted individual.
"Additionally, officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset."
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Mangione grew up in Maryland and graduated from the private Gilman School in 2016.
He went on to graduate from the Ivy League's University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics in 2020.
The academic also served as a head counsellor at a pre-college program at Stanford University.
Thomas J Maronick Jr - a lawyer who knows several members of the Mangione family - said: "It is just such a well-respected family and such a prominent family within Baltimore County."
According to The New York Times, Mangione's family and friends haven't been able to reach him for the past six months, as police look further into a motive.
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A chilling handwritten 'manifesto' was reportedly found in his backpack when he was arrested.
R.J. Martin was co-living and co-working with Mangione in a community in Hawaii and said he was 'beyond shocked' by the news.
“He was a very thoughtful person. Communicated really well, was friendly, had good relationships with everyone. He was even, in some ways, a bit of a leader,” Martin told CNN.
“When I first interviewed him, before he moved in, I remember he said he had a back issue (from a surfing accident), and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii.”