Developing Story
What We Know About the ‘Person of Interest’ in the Healthcare CEO Shooting
Luigi Mangione was named a person of interest after being detained in a Pennsylvania McDonald's five days after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
December 9, 2024
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Police place bullet casing markers outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Brian Thompson was shot and killed before 7:00 AM this morning outside the Hilton Hotel, just before he was set to attend the company's annual investors' meeting. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police investigating the crime scene outside the Manhattan hotel where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Luigi Mangione, 26, was detained in Altoona, Pennsylvania Monday, Dec. 9, and identified as a person of interest in the shooting death of UntiedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was picked up five days after Thompson was killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City early in the morning on Dec. 4. Though he was labeled a person of interest, he has not yet been arrested or officially charged in connection to Thompson’s death. (He was, however, arrested on a firearms charge in Altoona.)
New York City Police Department detectives are reportedly traveling to Altoona to question Mangione further. If he is to be charged in Thompson’s death, he’ll have to be extradited to New York first.
Details about Mangione are still emerging, but here’s everything we know so far about the person of interest, as well as Thompson’s death.
“Preplanned, Targeted”
Authorities have described Thompson’s killing as a “preplanned, targeted attack.” The shooting occurred at around 6:45 a.m. when the suspect fired several bullets at Thompson, striking him in his back and leg. Three live rounds and three fired shell casings were recovered from the scene by police. The 50-year-old was pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital.
Immediately after the shooting, authorities said the suspect fled the scene, first on foot, then on a bicycle, and quickly left New York City via bus (surveillance cameras caught him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal but not leaving it). Police officers also recovered a backpack — reportedly stuffed with Monopoly money — in Central Park that they said belonged to the shooter.
During the manhunt, police shared a handful of photos of the suspected shooter culled from surveillance footage. These included images of the shooter in a Starbucks, as well as a taxi cab, though in both of those images, his face was covered. Images of the shooter without a face mask were captured at the Manhattan hostel where he was reportedly saying.
ID’d in Altoona
It was these images that appeared to lead to Mangione’s identification in Altoona. At a press conference on Monday, Dec. 9, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione was recognized by a McDonald’s employee, who then called the police.
When the officers arrived on the scene, Tisch continued, they questioned Mangione, whom they said was “acting suspiciously.” The police found that Mangione was “carrying multiple fraudulent IDs” — including a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one the suspect allegedly used to check into his New York City hostel. Tisch also said officers recovered a face mask similar to one worn by the suspect, as well as a gun and a suppressor “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder.”
At the press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said they believed the Mangione was carrying was a “ghost gun.” These are firearms that are made out of parts and DIY kits bought online, and then assembled at home, rendering them untraceable. Kenny said Magnione’s gun was capable of firing a 9mm round, and suggested the firearm may have been made with a 3D printer.
Lastly, Mangione had a handwritten manifesto that Tisch said spoke to his “motivation and mindset.”
Who Is Luigi Mangione?
Mangione’s biography is still being pieced together, though Kenny did share a few details, saying Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, had ties to San Francisco and recently lived in Honolulu.
Mangione attended the Gilman School, a private all-boys institution in Maryland, where he wrestled and graduated in 2016 as valedictorian. The University of Pennsylvania confirmed Mangione graduated from there in 2020, receiving a bachelor’s degree — he majored in computer science and minored in mathematics — and a master’s degree in engineering (via The New York Times).
As for his ties to San Francisco, Stanford University confirmed that Mangione worked as a head counselor in the school’s Pre-Collegiate Studies Program between May and September 2019. For a time, Mangione worked at TrueCar, an automobile pricing and review site; a company spokesperson confirmed to Rolling Stone that he had not worked there since 2023.
Mangione has no known criminal record in New York, and Kenny said authorities believe he was acting alone.
The Manifesto
According to early reports, Mangione had a handwritten manifesto on him that criticized healthcare companies and the ways they prioritize profits over patient care. The full contents of the document haven’t been released yet, though a police official provided CNN with two quotes: “These parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”
Speaking on the manifesto at the press conference, Kenny said the document remains in the possession of Altoona police as part of their investigation. He added: “Just from briefly speaking with them, we don’t think that there’s any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document. But it does seem that he has some ill will towards corporate America.”
That would potentially line up with one of the most striking pieces of evidence to come out of the crime scene: Bullet casings engraved with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” a possible allusion to terms used by health insurance companies to avoid paying claims.
Suspected Social Media
The release of Mangione’s name revealed several social media accounts that share his name, as well as some matching biographical details. (For instance, a Twitter account for a Luigi Mangione includes his college credentials, “M.S.E. and B.S.E. in Computer Science @ Penn.”)
Notably, the header photo for this Twitter account appears to include an X-ray of a person’s back, possibly with a lumbar spinal fusion. This is a surgery that connects bones in the spine, preventing movement to help stop pain (per the Mayo Clinic). Furthermore, a Goodreads account believed to belong to Mangione shows he logged several books related to chronic back pain.
But arguably, the most striking book logged on that Goodreads account was Industrial Society and Its Future — otherwise known as the manifesto of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. “It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless [sic] 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,” Mangione wrote in his review.
