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A 26-year-old Ivy League graduate has been charged with the murder of a senior UnitedHealth Group executive ahead of an investor event in New York last week.
New York prosecutors charged Luigi Mangione, 26, of Maryland, late on Monday night, hours after he was arrested by local police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, according to a court filing. In total, he was charged with five counts, including firearms charges.
Mangione was earlier on Monday detained while in possession of an untraceable “ghost gun”, as well as a suppressor and fake New Jersey ID card matching the description of those used by the individual suspected of shooting Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the Minnesota-based group’s insurance unit on December 4.
Mangione was also carrying a handwritten, three-page document which outlined “some ill will towards corporate America” but did not mention any specific individuals, said Joseph Kenny, the NYPD chief of detectives.
He made a brief initial court appearance in Pennsylvania on Monday evening, where he was charged with weapons violations, forgery and false identification, among others.
Mangione was an engineering graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, according to a LinkedIn profile of a person matching his description. He was born and raised in Maryland, and his last known address was Honolulu, Hawaii, the NYPD said.
The development comes after a five-day manhunt in which NYPD detectives and federal investigators have criss-crossed the city and nearby states in an attempt to solve the murder that shocked New York and corporate America.
Jessica Tisch, New York Police Department commissioner, said: “For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed every bit of forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and so much more — to tighten the net.”
The NYPD released CCTV images of the suspect checking into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan before the murder and in the back of taxi following the killing. Tisch credited the images with progress in the case: “The images that we shared with the public were spread far and wide and the tips we received led to recovery of crucial evidence,” she said.
Mangione’s family issued a statement late on Monday sent out by Maryland delegate Nino Mangione, Luigi’s cousin: “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Thompson’s murder before dawn on his way to an investor event organised by UnitedHealth Group at a Marriott hotel off Sixth Avenue in midtown Manhattan has raised concerns about the security of high-ranking executives.
The killing has also fuelled a debate about the state of medical care in the world’s costliest healthcare system — UnitedHealthcare is the country’s biggest insurer, covering nearly 50mn Americans. “Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” UnitedHealth said.
Thompson was shot from behind three times outside the Marriott Midtown hotel at 6.45am local time, and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards at nearby Mount Sinai hospital. Detectives later discovered bullet casings at the scene with inscriptions including “deny” and “defend” — a possible nod to a 2010 book about how insurers deny claims.
Since then the NYPD gradually pieced together the killer’s movements before and after the shooting. The suspect arrived in New York in late November, staying in the Upper West Side hostel.
Following the shooting, he first travelled uptown on an e-bike through Central Park, where his backpack was later recovered. Then, he made his way to an interstate bus station, where he boarded a bus out of the city.
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