Police in New York have charged a man with murder after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson.
Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, was arrested in a branch of McDonald’s on Monday following a five-day manhunt.
Wearing a dark sweatshirt and flanked by local police and NYPD detectives, Mangione arrived at a Pennsylvania court where he was arraigned on a string of gun offences. Manhattan officials later filed charges including an official allegation of murder.
Police said Mangione had been carrying a 3D-printed, homemade “ghost” pistol and silencer that matched images of the weapon used to shoot Mr Thompson, a handwritten manifesto filled with grievances against “corporate America,” and multiple fake ID cards.
The three-page letter found in Mangione’s bag reportedly contained the words: “These parasites had it coming…I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”
Police sources told CNN the letter also claimed the suspect was self-funded and was acting alone.
Mangione’s family said on Monday night they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved,” they said in a statement posted to his cousin’s social media account.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said that New York state would pursue the murder charge, telling a media briefing “we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint.”
He added that Mangione is believed to have spent several days in Pennsylvania, having made stops in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, said police believed they had detained a “strong person of interest” in their investigation into the “brazen and targeted” murder, after a tip-off from a member of the public.
Thompson’s assassination on a busy street in Manhattan on the morning of Dec 4 sparked a nationwide manhunt for the suspect, who was dubbed the “smiling assassin” in reference to a CCTV image of him grinning at a hostel receptionist.
Jessica Tisch, the New York Police commissioner, said Mr Mangione was in possession of “a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” while law enforcement sources told CNN that the letter said: “These parasites had it coming.”
Joseph Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, said at a press conference that after reviewing the letter “it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America.”
He added that the firearm found in Mangione’s possession was “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” and could have been built from 3D printed components.
The gun found in Mr Mangione’s possession
One of the fake ID cards recovered by police also matched the details the suspect used to check into a hostel on the night before the shooting.
Mangione is originally from Maryland and studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Police said he has links to the San Francisco bay area, and was until recently living in Hawaii.
His online profiles suggest he has an interest in psychedelic drugs, technology and politics.
Mangione’s cover photograph on his X page, formerly Twitter, appears to show an X-ray of a posterior spinal fusion.
Mangione is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate.
His profile on Goodreads, a social media platform dedicated to books, shows he has read the manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” and left a review.
It read: “It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless[ly] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.
“He was a violent individual – rightfully imprisoned – who maimed innocent people.
While these actions tend to be characterised as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
A woman giving her name as Rosemarie, who The Telegraph understands is a relative of Mangione in Maryland, said it was “impossible” that he had been arrested in connection with the case, describing him as “gentle.”
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“He is the most gentle soul you could possibly meet – the most gentle,” she said. “It’s impossible.
“We’re talking about someone that I have known since birth, who is the gentlest human being you could possibly meet.”
Mangione’s most recent voter registration, in 2016, did not list an affiliation to a political party.
He became ‘visibly nervous’
The suspect was identified in a branch of McDonald’s by a member of staff who recognized him from partial images of his face released by the authorities.
He was found wearing a mask and a beanie while using a laptop.
Officer Tyler Frye, who responded to the call, said he “recognized him immediately” after asking him to pull down his surgical blue mask.
When the policeman asked the suspect: “Have you been to New York City?”, he became “visibly nervous.”
“He didn’t answer it directly, but then he started shaking,” he told reporters on Monday.
When police were unable to find any records matching Mark Rosario, the suspect told them his real name: Luigi Mangione.
When an officer asked why he used a false name, he replied “I clearly shouldn’t have”.
Police said he began acting “suspiciously” when officers arrived to question him, and was subsequently arrested on gun charges.
Mr Thompson’s dramatic killing on Wednesday prompted speculation he had been murdered by a contract killer – a theory police now believe is unlikely.
The suspect escaped first on an electric bike into Central Park, then in a taxi to a New York bus station, where he is thought to have bought a ticket south to Pennsylvania.
Police have collected various clues that the shooting was politically-motivated in recent days, including the words “delay” and “deny” written on the shell casings of the bullets used in the shooting.
The same words are often used by healthcare insurance companies, including Mr Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare, in their decisions not to fund the medical care of their customers.
Officers also recovered a backpack thought to belong to the suspect, which was stuffed with fake money from the board game Monopoly. Observers have speculated that the toy cash had been left as a political statement.
The discovery of a “ghost” pistol will fuel concerns about criminals manufacturing their own weapons from spare parts sourced online, or from 3D-printed components.
The weapons’ nickname refers to the fact the weapons are not registered on a state database, which can make it easier for police to track criminals after a shooting.
