Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate who has been named as a suspect in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, has been charged with murder by New York prosecutors, court records showed on Monday night.
Earlier, he was charged in Pennsylvania with possession of an illegal weapon, forgery and other crimes after being arrested at a McDonald’s on Monday morning.
Thompson’s murder on a midtown Manhattan street in broad daylight shocked many Americans but also sparked a torrent of outrage aimed at the US’s profit-driven healthcare industry. Many online shared personal stories of terrible experiences while others valorized Mangione and called him a hero.
At a press conference on Monday, Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, attributed the eventual arrest of Mangione, who had been on the run since the shooting of Thompson last Wednesday, to the widespread attention to the case. But he also condemned the online attention and response Mangione’s suspected actions have garnered. Shapiro said though he understands people have frustrations with the healthcare system in the US, “we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or to express a view point”.
“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero,” Shapiro said. “Hear me on this, he is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 in the McDonald’s this morning.”
While the motive for the shooting is still unknown, early evidence suggests Mangione’s alleged actions could have been a political act. In addition to carrying a gun, a silencer and other items, Mangione was found to have been in possession of a handwritten, three-page “manifesto” criticizing health insurance companies for putting profits above care, according to senior law enforcement officials.
On the first page of the document, one line read, “these parasites had it coming”, according to CNN. “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” it continued. The document also indicated Mangione was self-funded and acted alone. The second page included a screed against the healthcare industry. In it, Mangione laments the costs of healthcare and asks why the US has the most expensive healthcare in the world but is rated poorly for life expectancy.
The US ranked 42 in life expectancy in 2007, per an Associated Press story from August 2007, and was ranked 49 as of 2022. However, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the country is expected to drop to 66th in the world in 2050.
Mangione was arrested in an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s for forgery after Mangione provided police with a fake ID, authorities said at a Monday evening press conference. Police arrived at the fast-food chain after Mangione was identified by an employee who recognized him.
“He was sitting there eating,” said Joseph Kenny, the New York City police department’s chief of detectives, at Monday afternoon’s press briefing.
Mangione was found carrying identification with his name on it, along with a fake New Jersey ID – the same that the man believed to be the gunman showed when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on 24 November.
According to his LinkedIn page, the suspect lists himself as having both a bachelor’s and master’s of science engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
A university spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that Mangione had received his bachelor of science in engineering and master of science in engineering at the school.
His LinkedIn page also indicates that he is employed as a data engineer for TrueCar, Inc, where he has worked since 2020. In a statement, TrueCar, Inc told the Guardian that Mangione had not been with the company since 2023.
“While we generally don’t comment on personnel matters, we can confirm that Luigi Mangione has not been an employee of our company since 2023,” they said.
The UPenn graduate, now in custody, arrived in Altoona on a Greyhound bus, according to the New York Times. He is also believed to have taken a Greyhound when he arrived in New York City 10 days before the shooting.
Mangione was a valedictorian at Gilman high school in 2016, where he had expressed his desire to study at the University of Pennsylvania. He was quoted as a video game enthusiast and eventually joined the university’s video game club.
Per the suspect’s social media presence, he appears to have been an active poster up until May or June of 2024 before his activity tapered off. He was also particularly active on Goodreads, where he previously liked online quotes from the “Unabomber”, Ted Kaczynski.
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has lived in San Francisco and Honolulu. He has no prior arrest history in New York.
