UPDATED: Luigi Mangione charged with murder in fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO

Photo: Courtesy NYPD

Authorities have charged Luigi Mangione, 26, with the second-degree murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Police arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania Monday morning after a McDonald's employee recognized him from photos circulating of the suspected killer and called local police.

On Monday, two Altoona Police Department officers found Mangione at a table wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a silver laptop computer, according to the criminal complaint filed in Pennsylvania. They asked him to pull down his mask and Mangione complied. The officers recognized him as the suspect in the New York City shooting, the complaint said. Mangione provided the officers with a New Jersey driver's license, bearing the name of Mark Rosario. The fraudulent New Jersey identification was the one Mangione allegedly used to check into a New York City hostel last week.

One officer "asked the male if he had been to New York recently and the male became quiet and started to shake," the complaint stated. 

Additional officers were called and Mangione told police his name and was taken into custody. A search of Mangione's backpack turned up a black 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer. The pistol had a loaded Glock magazine with six nine-millimeter full metal jacket rounds.

Mangione, of Towson, Maryland, was originally arrested on firearm charges. New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference on Monday that police believed Mangione "to be our person of interest in the brazen, targeted murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare last Wednesday in Midtown Manhattan."

In Manhattan, Luigi has been charged with second-degree murder, three gun charges and forgery, according to The New York Times.

The firearm and suppressor found on Mangione were consistent with the weapon used to murder Thompson, Tisch said. The gun may have been a 3D-printed unserialized ghost gun, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, according to CBS News.

Recovered clothing and a mask were consistent with those worn by the wanted individual, Tisch said. 

"Additionally, officers recovered a hand-written document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," Tisch said.

The manifesto consisted of two-and-a-half handwritten pages that mirrored the quotes that Mangione posted on his Goodreads account from the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, according to the New York Post. Mangione reportedly hated the medical community because of how it treated a sick relative.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a well-off real estate family, had become estranged from family in the weeks leading up to the shooting, the Post reported. Mangione's mother reported him missing on November 18. He may have been living in San Francisco. His LinkedIn profile lists his address as Honolulu, Hawaii.

A school friend and a former roommate in Hawaii said Mangione had undergone back surgery and had back issues that were "traumatic and difficult" the report said.

Mangione was valedictorian of his 2016 high school graduating class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, where he played soccer. He said at the time of graduation that he planned to seek a degree in artificial intelligence, focused on the areas of computer science and cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mangione graduated cum laude from the private Ivy League institution in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Computer and Information Science in 2020, according to his LinkedIn page.

He also completed a Master of Science in Engineering, Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, his profile stated. The profile shows Mangione as a data engineer at a car company and lists his home as Honolulu, Hawaii.

The arrest ended a five-day search for the gunman who had targeted Thompson and shot him in the back as the CEO walked past him on his way to a UnitedHealth Group Investor Conference.

A private funeral service for Thompson, 50, a father of two, was reportedly held Monday in Minnesota.

Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org