A 26-year-old man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week.
Luigi Mangione was taken into custody Monday at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 280 miles (450 km) west of New York City, after a customer at the fast-food outlet recognized him.
According to police, he was found with a 3D-printed gun and a handwritten document indicating “motivation and psychosis”.
Mr. Mangione then appeared in a Pennsylvania court for trial on five preliminary counts and was denied bail.
Hours later, New York investigators charged Mr. Mangione with murder and four other counts, including firearms charges.
Mr. Thompson, 50, was shot in the back last Wednesday morning outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, where UnitedHealthcare, the medical insurer he heads, was holding an investors’ meeting.
Police say that he was targeted as part of a pre-planned murder.
The shooting sparked a massive manhunt, with New York City investigators using one of the world’s largest digital surveillance systems as well as police dogs, drones and divers in a Central Park lake to search for the attacker.
Mr. Mangione remains in prison in Pennsylvania, where he was formally charged with carrying an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to the police.
When he appeared in court on Monday, his wrists and ankles were handcuffed.
Mr. Mangione, dressed in jeans and a dark blue jersey, appeared calm during the hearing, occasionally glancing at attendees, including the media.
But eventually a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona recognized the suspect from media coverage and alerted an employee, who then notified police.
When police arrived, Mr. Mangione showed them a fake New Jersey driver’s license named Mark Rosario, court papers said.
The criminal complaint says he “went silent and began to tremble” when an officer asked if he had recently been to New York.
When she was told she would be arrested if she lied about her name, according to court papers, she revealed her real name.
When asked why he lied, he told officers that “I obviously shouldn’t have lied”.
A search of his backpack revealed a 3D-printed pistol, a 3D-printed silencer, and a loaded magazine with six rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
Prosecutors said he also had an American passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of which was in foreign currency, although Mr. Mangione disputed the amount in court.
Investigators revealed that finding him was a complete surprise, as his name had not been on the list of suspects before Monday.
