What to know about Luigi Mangione and the investigation of the fatal shooting UnitedHealthcare’s CEO

Days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot last week outside a New York City hotel, authorities on Monday arrested a person of interest in the case in Altoona.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Blair County on charges of forgery and false identification to law enforcement and brought in for questioning after a customer recognized him “sitting there eating” and restaurant employee called the police, officials said at a news conference.

At the time he was arrested, Mangione — who graduated in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania — had on him a 9mm ghost gun “consistent with” the firearm used to shoot Thompson, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Here’s what we know about Mangione, the shooting, and the investigation so far.

» READ MORE: Read live coverage: Ex-Penn student is person of interest in shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO

A gunman killed Thompson in what police have described as a “brazen, targeted attack.” The shooting happened outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, setting off a massive search for the fleeing assailant hours before the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting nearby.

Thompson, 50, was shot around 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel, police said. The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire, Tisch said. Police had not yet established a motive.

“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” Tisch said, adding that the shooting “does not appear to be a random act of violence.”

The shooter, who wore a jacket, face mask, and large backpack, fled through Midtown on foot before pedaling an electric bike into Central Park a few blocks away, police said. The assailant remained at large through the weekend, sparking a search that included police drones, divers, helicopters, and dogs.

Based on surveillance footage of the suspected shooter at a bus terminal, police believed the shooter had left New York.

Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the United States. He worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and ran the company’s insurance arm since 2021.

As CEO, Thompson led a firm that provides health coverage to more than 49 million Americans and is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans. The company also sells individual insurance and administers health insurance coverage for thousands of employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.

United brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Min..-based UnitedHealth Group. Thompson’s $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus, and stock options awards, made him one of the company’s highest-paid executives.

The University of Iowa graduate began his career as a certified public accountant at PwC, and had little name recognition beyond the health-care industry. In 2021, Thompson drew attention when United, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. UnitedHealthcare ultimately delayed the change.

Thompson, who lived in a Minneapolis suburb and was the married father of two sons, was set to speak at an investor meeting in a midtown New York hotel when he was shot in the back.

Mangione is a person of interest in the fatal shooting of Thompson, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Monday. Mangione was arrested at an Altoona McDonald’s on gun charges and taken in for questioning.

According to Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives at the NYPD, Mangione grew upin Maryland and was most recently known to have lived in Honolulu, Hawaii.

» READ MORE: Who is Luigi Mangione, the ex-Penn student detained as a person of interest in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting?

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he received a bachelor’s degree in engineering in May 2020, with a major in computer science and minor in mathematics, as well as a master’s in engineering, with a major in computer and information science.

While at Penn, Mangione started a club for aspiring video game developers.

Mangione’s social media includes photos from 2019 taken at Penn’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, where it appears he was a member.

Altoona police said officers were dispatched to a McDonald’s on Monday morning responding to reports of a person matching the description of the man wanted in connection with Thompson’s killing.

In a news release, police said officers made contact with the man, who was then arrested on unrelated charges. The Altoona Police Department said it’s cooperating with local, state, and federal agencies.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania charges against Luigi Mangione: Read the complaint

The NYPD identified the man as Mangione. In Altoona, Mangione had false identification matching the ID used at the New York hostel where the suspected shooter stayed, Kenny said. He also had a ghost gun capable of firing a 9mm round, which matched the 9mm shells recovered at the crime scene, Kenny said.

Kenny said the ghost gun may have been made on a 3D printer. Ghost guns are untraceable and self-assembled. In turn, they lack serial numbers and do not require the same background checks that a firearm would.

When he was arrested, Mangione also had a handwritten document that suggested he had “ill will toward corporate America,” police said.

In Pennsylvania, Mangione faces charges of forgery, false identification to police, and carrying a firearm without a license, police said. Kenny said there will be an extradition process to bring him back to New York, where officials said they expect he’ll face separate charges via the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The Associated Press and Inquirer staff writers Maddie Hanna, Ellie Rushing, and Ximena Conde contributed to this report.