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A 26-year-old man was arrested on Monday in possession of a weapon matching the one used for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The man was taken into custody | Image/X
A 26-year-old man was arrested on Monday in the brazen killing of the head of the largest US health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, said New York’s police commissioner, adding that the suspect was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.
The man was taken into custody after police were alerted that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. They continue interrogating the accused in connection with last week’s murder of Brian Thompson, a senior executive at UnitedHealthcare.
Apart from the gun, police also recovered clothing, including a mask consistent with those worn by the wanted individual. “Also recovered was a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the ID our suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident,” Tisch said.
UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday in what police said was a “brazen, targeted” attack as he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference, police said.
The Police said that the suspect, Luigi Mangione, was born and raised in Maryland, and has ties to San Francisco. He studied at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and had been living in Hawaii ahead of the killing.
Mangione was led into the Blair County courthouse in Altoona for his arraignment on Monday night, where gun and forgery charges were slapped on him. The judge asked Mangione if he understood the charges against him, and he said he did. No plea was entered.
According to the court documents, the suspect was sitting at a table in the McDonald’s outlet wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a silver laptop computer. He had a backpack on the floor.
When he pulled down his mask, the police officers recognised him and approached him with several questions. When asked if he had recently been in New York, Mangione began to shake and went quiet, one of the responding officers said at a press conference.
Asked for identification, Mangione provided officers with a fake ID — a New Jersey driver’s license bearing another name and the incorrect date of birth.
How The Crime Unfolded
In last week’s shooting incident, a gunman followed Thompson on the sidewalk outside the New York Hilton Midtown and shot him dead from behind in front of bystanders.
The incident was caught on CCTV which showed Thompson on the sidewalk when a man in a hooded top, his lower face covered, approached from behind and fired several shots at the father-of-two, who crumpled to the ground.
The police said the suspect fled the crime scene on foot before taking a bike to Central Park and later boarding a bus from a terminal in the north of the city connecting New York to surrounding states and beyond.
An image released of the suspect was obtained from a youth hostel where the gunman apparently stayed before the hit, with media reporting he had lowered his mask to flirt with a receptionist.
- Location :
New York, United States of America (USA)
