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By Carlo Versano
Director, Politics & Culture
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The person arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the shooting death of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson has been identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, officials in New York said on Monday.
Mangione was detained at a McDonald's in Altoona, a city about 275 miles from New York City, on Monday morning after an employee recognized him while he was eating in the restaurant, police said.
At a hastily called press conference in New York City, where the brazen assassination took place last Wednesday in the middle of the Manhattan's main business and shopping district, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that Mangione was picked up carrying a gun and a fake New Jersey ID that matches the identification the suspect used to check into a hostel days before the shooting.
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Mangione has not yet been charged in Thompson's death. He is being held on local charges possibly in connection with presenting a fake ID to police, according to the New York Times. He would need to be extradited to New York to faces charges in the shooting.
Tisch said a "combination of old-school detective work and new age technology" helped track law enforcement to their suspect's whereabouts.
"We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and ears," she said. "Now the case will continue through the criminal justice process. And while we are proud of today's accomplishment, we must of course remember that a family is in mourning."
The major break in the case comes six days after Thompson, the 50-year-old insurance executive, was shot dead by a masked assailant outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan just before dawn. Thompson, who lived near UnitedHealth's headquarters outside Minneapolis, was in town for the company's investor day that was taking place at the Hilton.
In a statement to Newsweek after Magione was arrested, UnitedHealth Group said it hoped the news "brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy."
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The gunman was able to elude law enforcement for days, first traveling on an electric Citibike into nearby Central Park and then vanishing. Officials believe he took a bus both into and out of New York and stayed at a hostel on the Upper West Side, where he was captured on video pulling down his mask in an apparent flirtation with the desk clerk.
The suspect was otherwise seen on various surveillance cameras around the city with his face obscured by a mask and hood.
The assassination of a prominent health insurance CEO on a busy city street sparked a wave of online commentary from people on both sides of the aisle expressing emotions ranging from jubilation to schadenfreude, highlighting a bipartisan sense among Americans that the country's healthcare system is deeply broken, to the point that even the cold-blooded execution of one of its executives garnered little public sympathy. A Gallup poll released last week found that Americans' views of the quality of their healthcare have declined to a 24-year low.
The bullet casings recovered at the scene had the words "Deny, Defend, Depose" written on them, police said, suggesting a possible motive into the killing. Officials confirmed on Monday that Mangione was carrying a "manifesto" on his person when he was detained that criticized health insurance companies. Police have not divulged any information about what specifically was in the document.
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