Police arrest man suspected in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

NEW YORK —  Police have arrested a “strong person of interest” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.

The man arrested was identified by police as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26. Authorities said Mangione had a gun believed to be the one used in last week’s shooting and was taken into custody after police got a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pa., about 230 miles west of New York City.

A police criminal complaint charged him with forgery, carrying firearms without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing an instrument of crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.

Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address was in Honolulu, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.

Along with the gun, police also found a silencer, fake IDs and writings apparently critical of the health insurance industry, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Tisch confirmed Mangione had a handwritten document that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” The document suggested the suspect had “ill will toward corporate America,” police said.

Thompson, 50, was killed Wednesday in what police said was a “brazen, targeted” attack as he walked alone to the Hilton Midtown hotel from another 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, Tisch said. He used a 9-millimeter pistol that police said resembled guns that 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 photos and video — including footage of the attack and images of the suspect at a Starbucks beforehand.

Photos taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side showed the suspect grinning after removing his mask, police said.

Ammunition found near Thompson’s body bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking wording used by insurance industry critics.

Mangione attended a Baltimore private school for boys, graduating as valedictorian from the Gilman School in 2016, according to its website. He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesman told the Associated Press on Monday.

Gilman is one of Baltimore’s most elite prep schools. Some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent people, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have had children attend the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington.

In his valedictory speech, Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things,” according to a post on the school website. He praised their collective inventiveness and pioneering mindset.

The arrest of Mangione on Monday came as dogs and divers returned to New York’s Central Park while the dragnet for Thompson’s killer stretched into a sixth day.

Investigators have been combing the park since the Wednesday shooting and have been searching at least one of its ponds for three days, looking for evidence that may have been thrown into it.

On Friday, police found a backpack in the park 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.

An NYPD police officer and K-9 dog search around a lake in Central Park in New York on Monday.

(Yuki Iwamura / Associated Press)

On Monday, canine units sniffed leaf-covered planters between walking paths in Central Park near where police found the backpack. Farther along the path that police suspect he took through the park after the shooting, scuba divers geared up and started searching a pond for the third straight day.

Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, investigators say he fled into Central Park on a bicycle, emerged without his backpack and then ditched the bicycle.

He then walked a couple of blocks and got into a taxi, arriving 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, said Kenny, the chief of detectives.

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. Police say they believe the suspect acted alone.

Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspect that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the backseat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue mask.

Through the park search, the NYPD has taken steps to minimize disruption to visitors, leading to an odd juxtaposition of joggers, tourists and an active crime scene.

On Monday, a small section of the park was cordoned off with blue and white police tape, giving divers an area to change and get in the water.

At one point, a group of about 30 French-speaking tourists followed a guide down a path, but they couldn’t go any farther because of the police tape. Before turning back, many of them whipped out their phones to snap a photo of the divers.

Attanasio and Sisak write for the Associated Press.