Caught while eating a hash brown: Pictures show healthcare chief's 'assassin' in McDonald's, moments before arrest
10 December 2024, 15:50 | Updated: 10 December 2024, 16:10
The Ivy League graduate suspected of gunning down a health insurance CEO has been shown eating McDonald's moments before his arrest.
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Luigi Mangione, who was charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson in New York last week, was arrested on Monday in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.
He was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush of Mr Thompson.
Mangione, who was also charged with weapons, forgery and other charges, will be extradited to New York to face charges in connection with Mr Thompson's death.
The chance sighting at the restaurant led to a dramatic break in the fast-moving investigation that had captivated the public in the five days since the shooting that shook the health insurance industry.
Law enforcement continues to seek the public’s help in gathering information on Luigi Mangione’s travel and recent whereabouts in Pennsylvania. We ask anyone with information to call 1-800-4PA-TIPS or submit a tip online at https://t.co/GheTzi0bTc. pic.twitter.com/VOP94C98CL
— PA State Police (@PAStatePolice) December 10, 2024
Mangione had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday's shooting of Mr Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police said.
He was sitting at a table in the rear of the McDonald's wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer, documents said.
When an officer asked if he had been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake."
After being charged, Mangione was ordered to be held without bail during a brief court hearing.
Asked if he needed a public defender, he asked if he could "answer that at a future date".
Mangione is said to have suffered severe mental health issues - and is thought not to have seen his family in around a year.
Police have not made clear a motive for the attack, but Mangione is said to have singled out Thompson in the manifesto found on him.
These parasites had it coming. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done."
He also said the health insurance companies "continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it".
The short statement is said to have read: "To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.
He had a back condition that was made worse by a surfing injury, a former roommate said on Tuesday.
RJ Martin, who lived with Mangione in a co-living space in Hawaii, told the New York Times: "He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible,
"I remember him telling me that, and my heart just breaks."
Martin said that Mangione suffered from the back condition spondylolisthesis that was made worse by a surfing mishap.
He added: "His spine was kind of misaligned. He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve."
Martin said that one surfing lesson caused Mangione to be laid up for a week.
"It was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you’re in your early twenties and you can’t, you know, do some basic things."
