A suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
High-tech drones were deployed, hundreds of hours of video were examined and state-of-the-art tools scrutinized an « enormous amount » of forensic evidence. But when an arrest came in relation to the high-profile killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, it boiled down to « good old-fashioned police work », authorities said.
Five days after Thompson was brazenly gunned down on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was identified as a « person of interest » in the homicide that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said « captured the attention of the entire nation. »
Mangione, a former high school valedictorian with no known criminal record, was taken into custody Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, after an employee recognized him from surveillance photos that the NYPD released of the gunman and called 911.
He was subsequently charged with five crimes, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint released Monday night.
Altoona police officers responding to the employee’s tip confronted Mangione as he was eating at the fast-food restaurant, investigators said.
« Upon further investigation, officers recovered a firearm on his possession, as well as a suppresser, both consistent with the weapon used in the murder », Tisch said.
Mangione — who grew up in Maryland and had later lived in both San Francisco, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii — was charged with firearms possession, in addition to other charges, but has yet to be charged with Thompson’s murder, Tisch clarified.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny described the weapon allegedly found on Mangione as a « ghost gun » that appeared to be made with a 3-D printer and was capable of firing 9mm rounds.
