NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Police gather outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Brian Thompson was shot and killed before 7:00 AM this morning outside the Hilton Hotel, just before he was set to attend the company's annual investors' meeting. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Police in Altoona arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York after finding him in a fast-food restaurant with an illegal weapon and false identification, authorities announced.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man arrested as Luigi Mangione, 26, with ties to Philadelphia and whose last known address was in Honolulu. Mangione was in possession of what New York police described as a “ghost gun” made with a 3D printer and a “handwritten document that speaks to his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said.

“The suspect was in a McDonald’s and was recognized by an employee who then called local police,” Tisch said. The New York Police Department has published images showing the shooter’s face culled from surveillance camera footage before and after Thompson was shot.

Tisch said Mangione was also carrying a U.S. passport and multiple false IDs including a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the one the person police believe to be the shooter used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident.

Police also recovered clothing including a mask Tisch said was consistent with those worn by the person sought in connection with Thompson’s killing.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Mangione had no prior criminal record and that NYPD detectives traveled to Altoona on Monday to question Mangione.

Kenny said the document Mangione had when he was arrested is in the possession of Altoona police. They did not believe there were specific threats to other people mentioned in the document, “but it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.

Thompson, 50, was shot several times by a person who authorities believe was lying in wait early Wednesday morning outside the Manhattan hotel where United HealthCare was holding an investors meeting.

Thompson had been CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest for-profit health insurance providers, for nearly three years. His killing has prompted an outpouring of criticism of the company and the United States’ health care system generally for denying or unnecessarily complicating medical treatment.

Mangione was arraigned Monday evening at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg on charges of carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, records or identification tampering, possession of instruments of crime and presenting false identification to law enforcement.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a news conference Monday evening after the arraignment that attention generated by the investigation helped Pennsylvania police capture the person sought in connection to Thompson’s killing.

“But some attention in this case, especially online, has been deeply disturbing, as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer,” Shapiro said, noting that Thompson, who was laid to rest Monday in Minnesota, was a father to two, a husband and a friend to many. “And yes, he was the CEO of a health insurance company. In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint.”

“This killer is being hailed as a hero,” Shapiro said. “Hear me on this. He is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”

According to a criminal complaint against Mangione: Altoona police were called to the McDonald’s on Plank Road for a suspicious person who resembled the person wanted in connection with Thompson’s shooting. Officers located Mangione sitting at the rear of the restaurant wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer on the table.

Officers asked Mangione to pull down the mask to show his face and recognized him as the person in the pictures released by New York police of the person wanted for the shooting. When asked for identification, Mangione provided a New Jersey driver’s license with the name Mark Rosario and a July 1998 birthdate, according to the complaint. Police were unable to find any information with the identity Mangione provided and advised him that he would be arrested for lying about his identity.

Mangione then identified himself. When asked why he had lied, Mangione replied “I clearly shouldn’t have.” He was then handcuffed, searched and taken to the police station. Inside Mangione’s backpack, police said they found the 3D-printed pistol loaded with nine rounds of 9 mm ammunition and a loose hollow-point round. The gun was with a silencer that had also been 3D printed, police said.

A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia confirmed that Mangione is a 2020 graduate of the university’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs, where he studied computer science. A LinkedIn profile in Mangione’s name says he has worked as a data engineer for a Santa Monica, California, online auto sales marketplace.

Mangione comes from a large and high-profile family in the Baltimore area, with branches of the family that own the Turf Valley and Hayfields country clubs in Ellicott City and WCBM Radio, among other businesses, the Capital-Star’s sibling publication Maryland Matters reported.

WBAL-TV in Baltimore reported that Luigi Mangione was valedictorian of the Class of 2016 at the Gilman School and later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. The office of Del. Nino Mangione (R-Baltimore County) confirmed to the TV station that the lawmaker is a cousin.

Nino Mangione, a radio host at WCBM who was elected to the General Assembly in 2018, did not immediately respond to calls and an email from Maryland Matters seeking comment Monday. The Gilman School did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that Luigi Mangione was a student there.

The arrest Monday was the result of “tireless work of the greatest detectives in the world,” Tisch said, who reviewed thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips and processed forensic evidence. The NYPD also deployed assets including scuba divers, drones and electronic surveillance systems.

“This combination of old school detective work and new age technology is what led to this result today,” Tisch said, adding that the media and the public played a crucial role. “We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.