‘We knew that was our guy’: how police found UnitedHealth shooting suspect Luigi Mangione
Luigi Mangione, shackled and struggling with officers on his way into court, has opposed being sent to New York City to stand trial as his arrest warrant reveals how police tracked him down.
A defiant Luigi Mangione, shackled and struggling with officers on his way into court, has opposed being sent to New York City to stand trial in the shooting death of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson.
“It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience,” the Ivy League graduate shouted to onlookers as officers muscled him into the Blair County Courthouse before his hearing. It was unclear what he was referring to.
Once inside the courtroom, he sat in an orange jumpsuit next to his lawyer with deputy sheriffs and officers flanking him.
His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told a Pennsylvania judge that his client wouldn’t waive his right to extradition proceedings. The attorney, based in nearby Altoona, also sought bail for his client, who investigators said gunned down Mr Thompson in Midtown Manhattan last week and then fled New York.
Mangione, 26 years old, was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona. He was detained on firearm, forgery and other charges in Pennsylvania. New York prosecutors later charged him with five criminal counts, including second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
The judge, David Consiglio, denied the bail request after a prosecutor warned that Mangione had evaded law enforcement over five days and had $8,000 and a passport on him when he was apprehended.
“He has succeeded in evading detection by law enforcement,” said Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.
The manhunt to find Mr Thompson’s killer captivated the public, with some corners of the internet deeming Mangione a quasi-folk hero for striking a blow against the insurance industry. Online donors had raised more than $8,000 for Mangione’s legal fees by Tuesday morning.
If Mangione had waived his extradition rights, it would have cleared a path for him to be taken to New York to face the murder charge. Instead a Pennsylvania judge set a schedule for legal proceedings to determine extradition that could take weeks to resolve.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the New York charges, said it would seek a warrant from the governor to secure Mangione’s extradition to Manhattan.
Mangione’s decision to fight extradition is likely a delay tactic, said lawyers uninvolved with the case. There is little downside to the legal battle — which he will likely lose — since he would be jailed in either state awaiting trial.
“It bides him and his lawyers time to figure out what to do on the New York charges,” said Daniel Horwitz, a former Manhattan prosecutor now at law firm Tannenbaum Helpern. “It gives them time to assess if they have a defence and if there are mental-health issues, as opposed to rushing to New York to jump right into the case.”
Earlier on Wednesday (AEDT), the Manhattan district attorney’s office released an arrest warrant detailing how investigators connected the alleged shooter to the killing.
Mangione was caught on surveillance camera leaving a Manhattan hostel about an hour before the killing wearing the same attire as the shooter, according to the warrant.
He checked into the hostel in the days leading up to the fatal shooting, the warrant said. He also provided the hostel with a fraudulent New Jersey driver’s license with the name Mark Rosario, the warrant said. The license was the same one he presented to local police at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., where he was arrested after a national manhunt. A McDonald’s employee called the police after Mangione was spotted dining at the restaurant.
Mangione was sitting looking at a silver laptop when the police approached him, according to local Altoona police.
He was wearing a blue medical mask that they asked him to lower, the officers said.
“We just didn’t think twice about it. We knew that was our guy,” said Tyler Frye, one of the two responding officers, at a news conference.
Mangione provided the officers with a New Jersey driver’s license bearing the name Mark Rosario. The officers said Mangione “became quiet and started to shake” when they asked if he had been to New York recently. He gave his name as Luigi Mangione after police told him he was under official investigation. When asked why he gave a fake name, he replied, “I clearly shouldn’t have.”
Mangione was detained on firearm charges in Pennsylvania and later was charged in New York with the shooting of Mr Thompson outside a New York City hotel last week. He arrived in court Tuesday afternoon for an extradition hearing to send him to New York to face five criminal counts, including second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
He had an outburst before entering a courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pa. While resisting the officers escorting him, he appeared to shout to people gathered outside, “It’s completely unjust and it’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience.”
Thompson’s killing captivated the public, with some corners of the internet deeming Mangione a quasi-folk hero for striking a blow against the insurance industry. Online donors had raised more than $8,000 for Mangione’s legal fees by Tuesday morning.
During a search of Mangione’s backpack at the time of his arrest, police found a pistol and silencer, both produced by 3-D printing. The pistol had a magazine with six 9-millimeter rounds inside.
Prosecutors said that he was carrying $8,000 in cash and that he had bags for his electronic devices that block electromagnetic signals. Mangione denied carrying that much cash and said he used the bags because they were waterproof.
Investigators said they don’t know if Mangione had a personal connection to UnitedHealth. When he was arrested Monday he was carrying handwritten notes that expressed frustration with the US healthcare system.
“Specifically he states how we are the No. 1 most expensive healthcare system in the world yet the life expectancy of an American is ranked 42 in the world,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said on “Good Morning America.”
In 2019, Mangione also uploaded handwritten notes to his Goodreads account that said he had an injury called spondylolisthesis, a condition when one of the bones in the spine moves and puts pressure on the vertebra below, causing back pain and other symptoms.
The notes included treatment options including pain medication, physical therapy and a back brace, as well as how to adjust strength training. The banner photo of Mangione’s X account includes an X-ray image of what appears to be a person’s back after a spinal fusion, a surgery that connects two or more vertebrae that is used to treat the condition.
Mangione’s criminal complaint in New York isn’t yet public. In New York, criminal complaints typically remain sealed until a defendant is arraigned.
The length of the extradition process depends in part on how he and his lawyers handle questions around his extradition. If he waives extradition proceedings, he would be transported to New York, where he would be arraigned at the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan. If he chooses to challenge his extradition, that would kick off a process that would require a warrant issued by the governor’s office.
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