In the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which shocked the country and led to a 24-hour manhunt for his attacker, Pennsylvania officials detained “a strong person of interest” on Monday.
Luigi Mangione, 26, of Towson, Maryland, was accused of possessing criminal tools, forging documents or identification, carrying weapons without a permit, and giving police a false identity.
Two senior law enforcement authorities claim that Mangione was apprehended in a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with several forged identification documents, including one using the name “Marc Rosario.” During a press conference, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that a restaurant employee had identified him and had contacted the local police.
Investigators are investigating if Mangione recently took a bus from Philadelphia, which is 240 miles distant, to Altoona.
Last week, police said that the guy accused of the shooting had taken a bus to New York City in late November and had stayed at a hostel in Manhattan.
Three people with knowledge of the inquiry said that the individual who checked into the hostel also used a phony New Jersey ID bearing the same name, “Marc Rosario.”
A three-page handwritten paper “that speaks to both his motivation and mindset” was discovered by investigators, Tisch added.
Mangione also carried a ghost pistol, which is hard to track down and can be made at home.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny stated, “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 9 mm round.”
According to a university spokesman, Mangione earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. She also obtained a master’s degree in computer and information science.
He received his diploma from Baltimore’s Gilman School, an all-male secondary school, in 2016.
Gilman’s headmaster, Henry P.A. Smyth, issued a statement saying, “This is extremely upsetting news on top of an already terrible situation.” “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted.”
With profiles utilizing his name and images going back years, Mangione seemed to have a sizable internet presence.
He claimed to have read 65 books on subjects ranging from diets to Elon Musk on one of his busiest profiles on the book review website Goodreads.
According to authorities, shot shells discovered at the shooting site with the phrases “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” inscribed on them. However, the report revealed no evidence that he had read or commented on the book “Delay, Deny, Defend,” which is about the health insurance business.
Mangione reviewed Ted Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future,” sometimes referred to as the “Unabomber Manifesto,” on Goodreads in January. Kaczynski used it as the intellectual justification for his mail bomb campaign, which resulted in three fatalities and twenty-three injuries.
To avoid dealing with some of the hard issues it raises, it’s simple to dismiss this as the manifesto of a madman in a hurry and without much consideration. However, it’s hard to deny how accurate many of his forecasts about contemporary society were,” Mangione noted.
Mangione also cited a “take” that he claimed to have “found online,” which said, in part: “Violence is necessary to survive when all other forms of communication fail.” Even if you disagree with his tactics, from his point of view, it’s war and revolution rather than terrorism.
Additionally, it stated: “You, your children, or your grandchildren are of no concern to these companies.” Why should we feel guilty about destroying the earth to survive when they don’t mind doing it for financial gain?
In other online news, Mangione resumed posting and reposting content on Twitter, now called as X, in 2021 after a five-year hiatus.
He supported and followed some of the most prominent figures in the emerging conservative-leaning tech industry, such as author and social media critic Jonathan Haidt, journalist Tim Urban, and neurologist and podcaster Andrew Huberman.
He wrote about what he saw as the shortcomings of contemporary society, such as the decline in birth rates, the gender gap in politics, and the obsessive use of social media.
Mangione, who loves going to the gym and being healthy, retweeted messages on health and masculinity as well as the expanding role and promise of artificial intelligence in changing society.
He posted content that connected growing dependency on technology to deteriorating mental health and reproductive outcomes. Additionally, he disseminated information that ridiculed and attacked “woke” and inclusive political ideologies.
Mangione, who seemed to be an admirer of food writer Michael Pollan, posted articles that questioned the use of psychedelic substances, alcohol, and even coffee. Mangione was reading Pollan’s 2006 best-seller, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” according to his Goodreads account.
Mangione also shown interest in Japanese culture by promoting opposition to certain of its cultural organizations in a list of suggestions to boost the nation’s birth rate. A composite image of a Pokémon, an X-ray of a spine with equipment, and what looked to be a photo of him hiking naked in Hawaii made up his X cover image. Honolulu was his designated place on X.
In the meantime, authorities in New York were still looking into the death of Thompson, 50, who was shot and killed Wednesday morning when he was walking to an investor meeting in front of the New York Hilton Midtown.
In what police commissioner Tisch called a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack,” the gunman seemed to wait for his victim.
Thompson was shot at least once in the back and once in the right calf by the masked shooter who came up behind him. Police said the shooter went into Central Park on foot and later on a bike.
