Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in Manhattan by a masked shooter. The shooter shot Thompson using a silencer, and the shooter then left the scene on a bicycle and disappeared in Central Park. The NYPD swore up and down that they had leads, but it took them three days to find the shooter’s backpack, which was full of Monopoly money. Basically, I think most people sort of believed that the investigation would limp along for months, because the NYPD kept publishing various photos of white guys wearing different jackets and claiming that they were all the same shooter. Anyway, we were wrong? The NYPD really was investigating and they found the guy. Well, they found a guy and he does seem to fit some kind of profile. They arrested a guy improbably named Luigi Mangione inside of a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. He was carrying a gun and Luigi seems to have written some kind of manifesto.
A 26-year-old Maryland native has been arrested on gun charges and for questioning in connection with last week’s killing of a health insurance executive in Midtown Manhattan that prompted a manhunt up and down the East Coast, the New York Police Department said.
The man being questioned was identified as Luigi Mangione, the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a news briefing on Monday afternoon. Mr. Mangione is scheduled to appear in court in Blair County, Pa., at 6 p.m. Monday for a preliminary arraignment on gun charges, according to court officials.
He was arrested in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., after an employee recognized him and called the authorities at about 9:15 a.m. The police had shared a steady stream of photos of the man believed to be the gunman since the shooting.
“He was sitting there eating,” Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at the briefing.
Mr. Mangione was carrying a gun, a silencer and false identification cards similar to those they believe the killer used in New York, according to one of the law enforcement officials and a person briefed on the investigation. Mr. Mangione showed the police the same fake New Jersey identification that the man believed to be the gunman presented when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Nov. 24, a senior law enforcement official said. The gun appears to be a so-called ghost gun, assembled from parts that may have been made from a 3-D printer, Chief Kenny said.
Mr. Mangione was also carrying a handwritten manifesto that criticized health care companies for putting profits above care, according to two law enforcement officials.
He was born and raised in Maryland, and has lived in San Francisco and Honolulu, the police said. Mr. Mangione attended Gilman School in Baltimore, a private high school, where he wrestled and graduated in 2016 as the class valedictorian. He earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2020. His major was in computer science, and he minored in mathematics. He has not been charged in connection with the killing.
Like many 20-somethings, Luigi has an extensive digital footprint and people are already doing deeper dives into his Twitter account (where he seems right-wing but not exactly MAGA) and his Goodreads account (where he apparently read the Unabomber’s manifesto and gave it four out of five stars). What else… Luigi has been charged now and he’s being held without bail. They also released one of the most thirst-trappy mugshots I’ve ever seen in my life!! And yes, the Italian-American community is now locked in and following this story closely. *Italian hand gesture*
The mugshot of Luigi Mangione has been released. pic.twitter.com/VVVzdrMYoO
— Pop Base (@PopBase) December 9, 2024
Me finding out they arrested a man named Luigi Mangione as the alleged UCH assassin pic.twitter.com/pD3CqcXd5q
— Lolo (@LolOverruled) December 9, 2024
Social media photos of Luigi.