Dec. 8, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — Moments after Luigi Mangione was put in handcuffs at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.
The discovery, recounted in court Monday (Dec. 8, 2025) as Mangione fights to exclude evidence from his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted for killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.
“It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,” an officer was heard saying on body-worn camera video from Mangione’s Dec. 9, 2024 arrest, punctuating the remark with expletives as the officer combing the bag, Christy Wasser, held up the magazine.
Wasser, a 19-year Altoona police veteran, testified on the fourth day of a pretrial hearing as Mangione seeks to bar prosecutors from using the magazine and other evidence against him, including a 9 mm handgun and a notebook that were found during a subsequent bag search.
Why the defense says the evidence shouldn’t be used at trial
Mangione’s lawyers argue the items should be excluded because police didn’t have a search warrant and lacked the exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless search. Prosecutors contend the search was legal and that police eventually obtained a warrant.
Wasser, testifying in full uniform, said Altoona police protocols require promptly searching a suspect’s property at the time of an arrest, in part for dangerous items.
On body-worn camera video played in court, Wasser was heard saying she wanted to check the bag for bombs before removing it from the McDonald’s. Despite that concern, she acknowledged in her testimony Monday that police never cleared the restaurant of customers or employees.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. He appeared in good health on Monday, pumping his fist for photographers and chatting with his lawyers as testimony resumed.
The hearing, which was postponed Friday because of Mangione’s apparent illness, applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Why prosecutors say jurors should be able to see the evidence
Prosecutors have said the handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing and that writings in the notebook showed Mangione’s disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference.
Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, after police there received a 911 call about a McDonald’s customer who appeared to resemble the suspect.
Wasser said that prior to responding to the McDonald’s she had seen some coverage of Thompson’s killing on Fox News, including the surveillance video of the shooting and images of the suspected shooter.
Wasser began searching his bag as officers took him into custody on initial charges of forgery and false identification, after he acknowledged giving them a bogus driving license, police said. The same fake name was used by the alleged gunman used at a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.
By then, a handcuffed Mangione had been informed of his right to remain silent — and invoked it — when asked if there was anything in the bag that officers should be concerned about.
Wasser told another officer she wanted to check the bag for a bomb before leaving the McDonald’s because she didn’t want to repeat an incident in which another Altoona officer had inadvertently brought a bomb to the police station.
What did police find in Mangione’s bag?
“Did you call the bomb squad?” Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked.
“No. I didn’t find a bomb yet,” Wasser responded.
According to body-worn camera video, the first few items Wasser found were innocuous: a hoagie, a loaf of bread and a smaller bag containing a passport, cellphone and computer chip.
Then she pulled out the underwear, unwrapping the gray pair to reveal the magazine.
Satisfied there was no bomb, she suspended her search and placed some of the items back in the bag. She resumed her search at the police station, almost immediately finding the gun and silencer. Later, while cataloging everything in the bag in what’s known as an inventory search, she found the notebook.
A Blair County, Pennsylvania, prosecutor testified that a judge later signed off on a search warrant for the bag, a few hours after the searches were completed. The warrant, she said, provided a legal mechanism for Altoona police to turn the evidence over to New York City detectives investigating Thompson’s killing.
As he has through the case, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann described Thompson’s killing as an “execution” and referred to his notebook as a “manifesto” — terms that Mangione’s lawyers said were prejudicial and inappropriate.
Judge Gregory Carro said the wording had “no bearing” on him, but warned Seidemann that he’s “certainly not going to do that at trial” when jurors are present.
Dec. 5, 2025:
Summary
NEW YORK (AP) — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, he told an officer he didn’t want to talk. But police continued asking questions, and he continued answering during nearly 20 minutes before police informed him of his right to remain silent. That’s according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday (Dec. 4, 2025) for Mangione. He’s charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York street one year ago. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. As Thursday marked the anniversary of Thompson’s death, UnitedHealthcare lowered the flags at its Minnesota offices in his memory.
Story
NEW YORK (AP) — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, he told an officer he didn’t want to talk, according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday (Dec. 4, 2025) for the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Although Mangione signaled he wasn’t interested in speaking, police continued asking questions, and he continued answering, video showed. Nearly 20 minutes passed before police informed him of his right to remain silent.
The exchanges have been scrutinized this week at a lengthy New York court hearing as Mangione’s lawyers try to keep some key evidence from being presented at his murder trial, including his statements to police and a gun and diary officers say they found in his backpack when he was arrested Dec. 9, 2024, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione’s lawyers argue that his statements aren’t fair game for trial because officers asked questions before reading his rights. The defense says the contents of his backpack should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching it.
The standards surrounding police questioning and searches are complicated and often argued over once cases get to court. However the issues are ultimately resolved in Mangione’s case, the hearing is giving the public an extensive preview of some testimony, video, 911 audio and other records.
Hearing coincides with anniversary
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The hearing, which started Monday and could extend to next week, applies only to the state case.
As Mangione sat in a Manhattan court on Thursday’s anniversary of the killing, UnitedHealthcare lowered the flags at its campuses in Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in Thompson’s memory. Employees were encouraged to engage in volunteering.
The 27-year-old Mangione, meanwhile, appeared to follow the court proceedings intently, at times leaning over the defense table to scrutinize papers or take notes. He briefly looked down as Altoona Police Officer Tyler Frye was asked about a strip-search of Mangione after his arrest. Under the department’s policy, that search wasn’t recorded.
‘I don’t know what you guys are up to’
Five days after Thompson was gunned down, Altoona police were tipped that someone at the McDonald’s resembled the much-publicized suspect in the killing. But Frye and Officer Joseph Detwiler initially approached Mangione with a low-key tone, saying only that someone had said he looked “suspicious.” Asked for his ID, he gave a phony New Jersey driver’s license with a fake name, according to prosecutors.
Moments later, after frisking Mangione, Detwiler stepped away to communicate with dispatchers about the license, leaving the rookie Frye by Mangione’s table. Frye asked him, “What’s going on?” and what had brought him to Altoona.
“I don’t know what you guys are up to. I’m just going to wait,” Mangione answered, and he inquired what was afoot.
After repeating the claim that someone was suspicious of Mangione, Frye asked: “You don’t want to talk to me or anything?”
Mangione indicated that he didn’t, shaking his head. But he continued to answer other questions asked by the officers, and also posed a few of his own.
“Can I ask why there’s so many cops here?” he asked shortly before being informed he was being arrested on a forgery charge related to his false ID. Roughly a dozen officers had converged on the restaurant, and Mangione had been told he was being investigated and had been handcuffed and read his rights.
When he was arrested, an officer asked whether there was anything in the backpack that police needed to know about.
“I’m going to remain silent,” Mangione replied.
Police went on to search the bag. They also searched Mangione’s pockets, finding objects including a pocket knife — which he alerted them to — and what appeared to be a neatly written to-do list. Entries for the previous day ranged from “digital cam” to “hot meal and water bottles” to “trash bag(s).”
Among the items for the day of his arrest: “survival kit.”
What’s at stake?
The evidence is key to prosecutors’ case. They have said the 9 mm handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing, that writings in the notebook laid out Mangione’s disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference, and that he gave police the same fake name that the alleged gunman used at a New York hostel days before the shooting.
Thompson, 50, was shot from behind as he walked to an investor conference. He became UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in 2021 and had worked within parent UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years.
Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet detailed their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Federal prosecutors have maintained that the backpack search was justified to ensure there was nothing dangerous inside, and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
Dec. 2, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is back in court on Tuesday (Dec. 2, 2025) for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using some key evidence they say links him to last year’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Various law enforcement officers are taking the witness stand Tuesday.
The pretrial hearing in Mangione’s state murder case has featured surveillance videos of the killing on a Manhattan sidewalk and security footage of his arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.
The defense contends the items should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack. They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.
In Mangione’s case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were “exigent circumstances” that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.
Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled.
Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing pertains only to the state case.
Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Prosecutors say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims.
Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school.
Mangione was arrested as he ate breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. The restaurant’s manager had told a 911 dispatcher, “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of — that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”
The manager said she could only see Mangione’s eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.
Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler testified Tuesday that when he was dispatched to the eatery, he was so dubious about the tip that he didn’t turn on his patrol car’s lights and sirens.
“I didn’t think it was going to be him,” the officer said.
Court officials say the hearing could take more than a week.
Sept. 16, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday (Sept. 16, 2025) dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione in New York state’s case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but he kept the state’s second-degree murder charges against him.
In a written decision, Judge Gregory Carro said that although there is no doubt that the killing was not an ordinary street crime, New York law doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.
“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote.
Prosecutors issued a statement after the hearing saying, “We respect the Court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts.”
The judge scheduled pretrial hearings in the case for Dec. 1, which is days before Mangione is next due in court in the federal case against him.
It was Mangione’s first court appearance in the state case since February, and he wore beige prison clothes, handcuffs and shackles. The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations with the health insurance industry. Supporters of Mangione took up three rows in the courtroom gallery. As was the case at his last hearing, a few dozen supporters, mostly women, showed up to Tuesday’s proceedings. Some were dressed in green — the color the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi wears — as a symbol of solidarity, and one woman sported a “FREE LUIGI” T-shirt.
Outside, some supporters who gathered across the street from the courthouse cheered and clapped as news of the dropped terrorism charges spread.
Mangione earlier pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as he arrived for an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. Since then, he has been held at the same Brooklyn federal jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is locked up.
Mangione’s lawyers argued that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amounted to double jeopardy. But Judge Gregory Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office contended that there are no double jeopardy issues because neither of Mangione’s cases has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories.
Mangione’s lawyers say the dueling cases have created a “legal quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously.”
The second-degree murder charge carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked Thompson and do not involve terrorism allegations.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary in a court filing seeking to uphold his state murder charges. They highlighted his desire to kill an insurance honcho and his praise for Ted Kaczynski, the late terrorist known as the Unabomber.
In the writings, prosecutors said, Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing an industry executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.” They also cited a confession they say he penned “To the feds,” in which he wrote that “it had to be done.”
Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit,” prosecutors said in the June filing. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry.”
April 15, 2025:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man was arrested near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota after threatening violence, months after the company’s CEO was killed, authorities said Monday (April 14, 2025).
The man was spotted around 11 a.m. in a parking lot outside of the UnitedHealthcare corporate campus in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. City spokesman Andy Wittenborg said the man contacted the FBI’s field office in Minneapolis once he arrived, and an FBI negotiator made contact with him by phone.
“While the investigation is still in its early stages, there is currently no indication that the individual had specific grievances against UnitedHealthcare,” Wittenborg said in a statement.
City police and the FBI coordinated their response and had steady contact with the man, successfully encouraging him to peacefully surrender to authorities after about an hour with no threat to the public, Wittenborg said. The man, who’d had previous contacts with Minnetonka police, had showed up at a security checkpoint where he was not supposed to be.
Wittenborg said the incident had nothing to do with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot to death in New York City on Dec. 4 as he was walking to an investor conference in midtown Manhattan. The man accused of killing him, Luigi Mangione, 26, pleaded not guilty in December to state murder and terror charges.
News helicopter video of the aftermath showed over a dozen law enforcement vehicles from multiple agencies at the scene, as well as an ambulance that was standing by. There were no reports of injuries.
The CEO’s killing and ensuing manhunt leading to Mangione’s arrest rattled the business community, with some health insurers hastily switching to remote work or online shareholder meetings. It also galvanized health insurance critics — some of whom rallied around Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.
Mangione also faces federal charges, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this month she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
March 25, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is asking for a laptop in jail, but just for legal purposes — not for communicating with anyone — as he awaits trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO.
In a court filing made public late Monday (March 24, 2025), Mangione’s lawyers proposed that he get a laptop configured solely to let him view a vast amount of documents, video and other material in the case surrounding the shooting of Brian Thompson. Similar limited-laptop provisions have been made for some other defendants in the federal lockup where Mangione is being held.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Mangione on a rare New York state charge of murder as an act of terrorism, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Mangione’s lawyers, prosecutors are frowning on the laptop request, saying that some witnesses have been threatened.
Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote that there’s “no connection to Mr. Mangione for any of said alleged threats.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson in December outside a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare was about to hold an investor conference. Thompson, who was 50 and had two children in high school, worked for decades within UnitedHealthcare and its parent company.
Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a Maryland real estate family, has pleaded not guilty to the New York state charges. He also faces a parallel federal case that carries the possibility of the death penalty. He hasn’t entered a plea to the federal charges or to state-level gun possession and other charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days after Thompson’s death.
Thompson’s killing alarmed the corporate world, where some health insurers hastily switched to remote work or online shareholder meetings.
But at the same time, the case channeled some Americans’ frustrations with health insurance companies. Mangione’s writings and words on bullets recovered from the scene reflected animus toward health insurers and corporate America, authorities have said.
Some people have lionized the accused killer, donated money to his defense and even flocked to his court appearances. Others, including elected officials, have deplored the praise for what they cast as ideological violence and vigilante justice.
Through his lawyers, Mangione has released a statement thanking supporters.
If he does get a laptop, it would be unable to connect to the internet, run video games or play movies or other entertainment, his lawyers said in Monday’s filing. But it would let him examine, from his jail cell, more than 15,000 pages of documents and thousands of hours of video that prosecutors gathered and were required to turn over to his attorneys.
Otherwise, he can view the material when meeting with his lawyers. But they say there aren’t enough visiting hours in the day for him to do that and properly help prepare his defense.
February 21, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search is scheduled to be in court Friday (Feb. 21, 2025) for the first time since his December arraignment on state murder and terror charges.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is set for a hearing in state court in Manhattan. Prosecutors and Mangione’s defense lawyers are expected to provide updates on the status of the case and Judge Gregory Carro could set deadlines for pretrial paperwork and possibly even a trial date.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. The executive was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to an investor conference.
Mangione also faces federal charges that could carry the possibility of the death penalty. He is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. The maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. A Feb. 24 hearing in Pennsylvania on charges of possessing an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police was canceled.
In a statement posted on a website for his legal defense, Mangione said: “I am overwhelmed by — and grateful for — everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support. Powerfully, this support has transcended political, racial, and even class divisions.”
The killing prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. health insurers, with Mangione attracting a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. A poll taken in the wake of the shooting showed most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share blame.
Several dozen members of the public showed up to get into Friday’s hearing, one wearing a green “Luigi” hat from the “Mario Bros.” video game franchise.
The killing also has sent shock waves through the corporate world, rattling executives who say they saw a spike in threats.
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Dec. 9. Police said he was carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, authorities said.
Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.
Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued at his Dec. 23 arraignment that “warring jurisdictions” had turned Mangione into a “human Ping-Pong ball.”
She accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other government officials of tainting the jury pool by bringing Mangione back to Manhattan in a choreographed spectacle involving heavily armed officers escorting him up a pier from a heliport.
Friedman Agnifilo singled out Adams’ comment on a local TV station that he wanted to be there to look “him in the eye and say, ‘you carried out this terroristic act in my city.’”
DECEMBER 19, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is back in New York facing new federal charges of murder and stalking, escalating the case after his earlier indictment on state charges. Luigi Mangione agreed to return to New York after a Thursday morning (Dec. 19, 2024) court appearance in Pennsylvania where he was arrested last week. He appeared in a Manhattan federal court in the afternoon where a magistrate ordered he be detained. The federal complaint unsealed Thursday charges him with two counts of stalking and one count each of murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense. Murder by firearm could bring the possibility of the death penalty.
DECEMBER 18, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said Tuesday (Dec. 17, 2024) as they worked to bring him to a New York court from a Pennsylvania jail.
Luigi Mangione already was charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson, but the terror allegation is new.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson’s death on a midtown Manhattan street “was a killing that was intended to evoke terror. And we’ve seen that reaction.”
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment.
Thompson, 50, was shot while walking to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare — the United States’ biggest medical insurer — was holding an investor conference.
The killing kindled a fiery outpouring of resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies, as Americans swapped stories online and elsewhere of being denied coverage, left in limbo as doctors and insurers disagreed, and stuck with sizeable bills.
The shooting also rattled C-suites, as “wanted” posters with other health care executives’ names and faces appeared on New York streets and some social media users extolled Mangione’s deed as payback.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday that “any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice.”
A New York law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks allows prosecutors to charge crimes as acts of terrorism when they’re “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping.”
Prosecutors have applied the statute to various contexts. Some related to international extremism, but the law was first used against a Bronx gang member after a hail of gunfire killed a 10-year-old girl and paralyzed a man outside a christening party in 2002. The state’s highest court later said the conduct didn’t amount to terrorism, and a retrial produced convictions on other charges.
Thompson’s killing, Bragg noted, happened early on a workday in an area frequented by commuters, businesspeople and tourists.
“This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,” the district attorney said.
After days of intense police searches and publicity, Mangione was spotted Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested. New York police officials have said Mangione was carrying the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport and various fake IDs, including one that the suspected shooter presented to check into a New York hostel.
The 26-year-old was charged with Pennsylvania gun and forgery offenses and locked up there without bail. His Pennsylvania lawyer has questioned the evidence for the forgery charge and the legal grounding for the gun charge. The attorney also has said Mangione would fight extradition to New York.
Mangione has two court hearings scheduled for Thursday in Pennsylvania, including an extradition hearing, Bragg noted.
Hours after his arrest, the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed paperwork charging him with murder and other offenses. The indictment builds on that paperwork.
Investigators’ working theory is that Mangione, an Ivy League computer science grad from a prominent Maryland family, was propelled by anger at the U.S. health care system. A law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press last week said that when arrested, he was carrying a handwritten letter that called health insurance companies “parasitic” and complained about corporate greed.
Mangione repeatedly posted on social media about how spinal surgery last year had eased his chronic back pain, encouraging people with similar conditions to speak up for themselves if told they just had to live with it.
In a Reddit post in late April, he advised someone with a back problem to seek additional opinions from surgeons and, if necessary, say the pain made it impossible to work.
“We live in a capitalist society,” Mangione wrote. “I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”
He was never a UnitedHealthcare client, according to the insurer.
Mangione apparently cut himself off from his family and close friends in recent months. His family reported him missing in San Francisco in November.
After San Francisco authorities got a tip to their New York counterparts, investigators spoke to Mangione’s mother in San Francisco late on Dec. 7. In that interview, “she said it might be something that she could see him doing,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday.
Before the case detectives could follow up on that lead, Mangione was arrested, Kenny said.
Mangione’s relatives have said in a statement that they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.
Thompson, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, was trained as an accountant. A married father of two high-schoolers, he had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.
DECEMBER 11, 2024:
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare has made it clear he isn’t going to make things easy for authorities. Luigi Mangione shouted unintelligibly and writhed in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court Tuesday (Dec. 10, 2024). And he objected to being taken to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance aren’t expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Mangione. He is charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson. Little new information has come out about a possible motive. But writings found in Mangione’s possession hint at a vague hatred of corporate greed.
DECEMBER 10, 2024, UPDATE:
NEW YORK (AP) —Manhattan police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEOBrian Thompson. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, while carrying a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush. Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. Late Monday (Dec. 9, 2024), Manhattan prosecutors charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
DECEMBER 10, 2024:
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — Court records show New York prosecutors have charged a man with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. Luigi Nicholas Mangione is being held without bail Tuesday (Dec. 10, 2024) in Pennsylvania after he was arrested and arraigned on gun, forgery and other charges the day before. He is expected to be extradited to New York eventually. It’s unclear whether the 26-year-old Mangione has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Authorities say he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s customer noticed another patron who resembled the man in security-camera photos that New York police had publicized.
DECEMBER 9, 2024, UPDATE:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was likely carried out with a ghost gun, one of the nearly untraceable weapons that can be made a home, police said Monday (Dec. 9, 2024).
A ghost gun is a firearm without a serial number, and police believe the one used in last week’s shooting of Brian Thompson may have been made with a 3D printer. It was capable of firing 9 mm rounds. The man arrested in the crime, Luigi Mangione, also had sound suppressor, or silencer, police said.
Ghost guns have increasingly turned up at crime scenes around the U.S. in recent years.
DECEMBER 9, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — Police arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday (Dec. 9, 2024) in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.
The 26-year-old man had a gun believed to be the one used in the killing and writings suggesting his anger with corporate America, police officials said.
He was taken into custody after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, Tisch said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny identified the suspect as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii. A message left Monday with a Philadelphia-area phone number connected to Mangione was not immediately returned.
Mangione was being held in Pennsylvania on gun charges and will eventually be extradited to New York to face charges in connection with Thompson’s death, Kenny said.
Police found a three-page document with writings suggesting that Mangione had “ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.
The handwritten document “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.
Mangione had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making them difficult to trace, investigators said.
“As of right now the information we’re getting from Altoona is that the gun appears to be a ghost gun that may have been made on a 3D printer, capable of firing a 9 mm round,” Kenny said.
Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a U.S. passport, Tisch said. Officers found a suppressor, “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” the commissioner said.
NYPD detectives and staff from the Manhattan district attorney’s office were traveling to Altoona to interview Mangione, Kenny 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 shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching the executive from behind and opening fire, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. He used a 9 mm pistol that police said resembled the guns farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise.
In the days since the shooting, police turned to the public for help by releasing a collection of nine photos and video — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspect at a Starbucks beforehand.
On Monday, police credited news outlets for disseminating the images and the tipster for recognizing the suspect and calling authorities.
“Luckily, a citizen in Pennsylvania recognized the subject and called local members of the Altoona Police Department responded to the call, and based on their investigation, they notified the NYPD,” Kenny said.
Photos taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side showed the suspect grinning after removing his mask, police said.
Investigators earlier suggested the gunman may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer. Ammunition found near Thompson’s body bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics.
The gunman concealed his identity with a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence, including a backpack he ditched in Central Park, a cellphone found in a pedestrian plaza and a water bottle and protein bar wrapper that police say he bought at Starbucks minutes before the attack.
On Friday, police found the backpack that they say the killer discarded as he fled from the crime scene to an uptown bus station, where they believe he left the city on a bus.
Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, investigators say the shooter fled into Central Park on a bicycle, emerged from the park without his backpack and then ditched the bicycle.
He then walked a couple blocks and got into a taxi, arriving at at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is near the northern tip of Manhattan and offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, Kenny said.
The FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to $10,000 that the NYPD has offered.
DECEMBER 5, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators are searching for clues that could help them identify the masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies on a Manhattan sidewalk, then disappeared into Central Park.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday (Dec. 4, 2024) as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton in Midtown, blocks from tourist draws like Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art.
The killing, and the shooter’s movements in the minutes before and afterward, were captured on some of the multitudes of security cameras present in that part of the city.
One video showed him approach Thompson from behind, level his pistol and fire several shots, barely pausing to clear a brief gun jam while the dying health executive tumbled to the pavement.
Other security cameras captured the initial stages of the gunman’s escape. He was seen fleeing the block across a pedestrian plaza, then escaping on a bicycle into Central Park, where he vanished.
Police used drones, helicopters and dogs in an intense search, but the killer’s whereabouts remained unknown late into the night.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while investigators had not yet established a motive, the shooting was no random act of violence.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” Tisch said at a news conference Wednesday.
“From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
Police issued several surveillance images of the man, who wore a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face and wouldn’t have attracted attention on a frigid winter day. Some of the photos were taken at a Starbucks coffee shop shortly before the shooting.
The police department offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the insurer’s Minnetonka, Minnesota-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., said in a statement. “We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.”
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he told her “there were some people that had been threatening him.” She didn’t have details but suggested the threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage.
Eric Werner, the police chief in the Minneapolis suburb where Thompson lived, said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive.
Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled. They were also searching Thompson’s hotel room, interviewing his UnitedHealthcare colleagues and reviewing his social media, Kenny said.
Police initially said the shooter rode into Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-share program, CitiBike. But a spokesperson for the program’s operator, Lyft, said police officials informed the company Wednesday afternoon that the bike was not from the CitiBike fleet.
Health care giant UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual meeting with investors to update Wall Street on the company’s direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson’s death.
Thompson, a father of two sons, had been with the company since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on the social platform X that the state is “sending our prayers to Brian’s family and the UnitedHealthcare team.”
“This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota,” the Democrat wrote.
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