Man, 26, arrested with gun ‘consistent with’ one used to kill insurance chief

Police arrested a “strong person of interest” on Monday in the Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings allegedly linking him to the ambush.

The 26-year-old man had a gun believed to be the one used in the killing and writings suggesting his anger with corporate America, police officials said.

He was taken into custody after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the gunman and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, Ms Tisch said.

NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny identified the suspect as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Mangione was being held in Pennsylvania on gun charges and will be extradited to New York to face charges in connection with Mr Thompson’s death, Mr Kenny said.

Police found a three-page document with writings suggesting that Mangione had “ill will toward corporate America,” Mr Kenny said.

The handwritten document “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” Ms Tisch said.

Mangione had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making them difficult to trace, investigators said.

“As of right now, the information we’re getting from Altoona is that the gun appears to be a ghost gun that may have been made on a 3D printer, capable of firing a 9mm round,” Mr Kenny said.

Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a US passport, Ms Tisch said.

They found a suppressor, “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” the commissioner said.

Mr Thompson, 50, was killed last Wednesday in what police said was a “brazen, targeted” attack as he walked alone to the Hilton from a nearby hotel, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference, police said.

UnitedHealth Group thanked law enforcement in a statement on Monday.

“Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” a company spokesperson said.

The gunman appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching the executive from behind and opening fire, NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

In the days since the shooting, police turned to the public for help by releasing a collection of photos and video — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspect at a Starbucks beforehand.

Photos taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side showed the suspect grinning after removing his mask, police said.

Ammunition found near Mr Thompson’s body bore the words “delay”, “deny” and “depose”, mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics.

Investigators have been combing the park since Wednesday’s shooting and have been searching at least one of its ponds for three days, looking for evidence that may have been thrown into it.

On Friday, police found a backpack in the park that they say the killer discarded as he fled from the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan to an uptown bus station, where they suspect he left the city on a bus.

On Monday, K-9 units sniffed leaf-covered planters between walking paths in Central Park near where police found the backpack.

Farther along the path that police suspect he took through the park after the shooting, scuba divers geared up and started searching a pond for the third straight day.

Late on Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspect that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi.

The first shows him outside of the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab.

In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue mask.