A 26-year-old man identified as a “strong person of interest” is being questioned by police in Pennsylvania on Monday in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The man, identified by the New York Police Department as Luigi Mangione, was found with a gun similar to the one a masked gunman used to kill 50-year-old Thompson last Wednesday in New York City.
Mangione was found in possession of a silencer and a mask, authorities said.
He also had a fake New Jersey ID under the name “Mark Rosario,” sources told NBC.
That was the same name on the fake New Jersey ID of the man who checked into a Manhattan motel, and who police were searching for as someone involved in Thompson's murder.
Screenshots of a closed circuit of a person of interest in the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Source: New York Police
Police said Mangione also carried a three-page document indicating that he “appears to have some ill will toward American businesses.”
Mangione, a Maryland native who was last known to be living in Hawaii, was arrested on firearms charges by Pennsylvania authorities, but has not been arrested or charged in connection with Thompson's killing.
The NYPD said the weapon was called a “ghost gun” that has the ability to fire a 9mm round. Police said the gun may have been made using a 3D printer.
“We have a powerful person concerned about the shooting that rocked our city last week,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference on Monday.
“He matches the identification description we were looking for, and he is in possession of several items that we believe link him to this incident,” said Adams, who was flanked by the NYPD Commissioner and the police department's chief of detectives. .
Police approached Mangione after receiving a report from an employee at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona who they thought looked suspicious.
The NYPD credited the release of surveillance images of a person wanted as a person of interest in the wake of Thompson's murder for his arrest.
The image of the person wanted in connection with the investigation into the killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit, appears in an undated still image from surveillance video captured in a New York City taxi, released on December 8. , 2024.
NYPD News | Via Reuters
The NYPD is on its way to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where the man is being questioned.
The development in the case came on the same day that Thompson's funeral was scheduled to be held in Minnesota.
It is not known whether the man being questioned in Altoona is the same person who appeared in surveillance footage of a person of interest in the murder previously released by the New York Police Department.
Thomson Corporation, a division of UnitedHealth Groupis the largest private payer of health insurance benefits in the United States
Brian Thompson, CEO, UnitedHealthcare.
Courtesy: UnitedHealth Group
The CEO was on his way to UHG's investor day meeting at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning when a gunman shot him from behind.
The suspect then fled the area on a bicycle and headed to nearby Central Park.
A New York City police officer walks through bushes and foliage in Central Park near 64th Street and Central Park West in New York on December 6, 2024, while searching for a backpack that police believe the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare dropped in the park. CEO Brian Thompson on December 4, 2024.
Ted Shaffrey | AP
The suspect was seen exiting the park on foot about 20 blocks north of the shooting scene, then took a taxi north to the Washington Heights neighborhood, where he was last seen entering the Port Authority bus station there, the NYPD said.
Police also said that this person is believed to have arrived in New York City on November 24 on a bus from Atlanta, and that he immediately went to the Hilton Hotel that same night and spent about half an hour wandering the nearby streets.
— NBC News' Tom Winter and WNBC's Jonathan Dienst contributed to this report.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
