California police had identified the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect as Luigi Mangione and alerted the FBI four days before he was eventually arrested in Pennsylvania, according to a report.
An officer in the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is said to have tipped off the bureau on December 5 after recognizing Mangione in images circulated by the NYPD, sources told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mangione had actually been on the radar of San Francisco authorities two weeks prior to the December 4 shooting of Brian Thompson.
Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, had reported her son missing on November 18 after the family had been unable to contact him since July 1, the sources told the Chronicle. An acquaintance told The New York Times the suspect had lost touch with friends and family after undergoing major surgery for debilitating, chronic back pain in July 2023.
A San Francisco officer on the missing persons case had then recognized him in the photos circulated of the suspected killer and identified Mangione by name to the FBI, according to the paper.
However, Mangione wasn’t arrested for another four days when a McDonald’s customer spotted him eating at a fast food branch in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday and an employee called police. Mangione was in possession of a ghost gun, a suppressor, “multiple fraudulent IDs,” and a handwritten 262-word manifesto, and a spiral notebook containing a “to-do list” when he was taken into custody, police said.
Following his arrest, authorities had claimed the 26-year-old wasn’t on their radar prior to the McDonald’s tip.
The Independent has contacted the San Francisco Police Department and FBI for more information.
The motive for the shooting is still under investigation, with Mangione’s manifesto and notebook providing potential clues.
In the manifesto, the suspect allegedly rails against the healthcare industry, saying the US has the “most expensive healthcare system in the world” while ranking 42nd in global life expectancy rankings.
However, UnitedHealth Group has now revealed that Mangione has never been a client of the health insurance company.
The NYPD’s Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York the findings indicate Mangione did not have a grudge against Thompson specifically, but that he targeted the company for its size and because he had prior knowledge that the company’s conference was taking place in New York that day.
“We have no indication that he ever was a client of UnitedHealthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America,” he said.
On Thursday, New York prosecutors began presenting evidence to a grand jury as they work toward what Governor Kathy Hochul predicts will be an “ironclad” indictment that may be issued “any day now,” ABC News reported.
A grand jury indictment could bolster the case for extradition from Pennsylvania to New York, where he faces a second-degree murder charge.
In a court hearing Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Mangione fought his extradition to New York and shouted as he was led into court.
“It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” he yelled.
His attorney, Thomas Dickey, explained the outburst to CNN on Wednesday, noting: “He’s irritated. Agitated about what’s happening to him and what he’s being accused of.”
