Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate who has been identified as the main suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was reportedly missing weeks before the shooting.
Thompson was shot to death last Wednesday on his way to the UnitedHealth Group's annual investor conference in a Midtown hotel in New York City. The shooter is believed to be carrying a backpack designed in San Francisco.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, Mangione's mother, Kathleen Mangione, filed a missing persons report on November 18, a few weeks after Mangione had back surgery. Although it was not immediately clear why Mangione's mother believed he was in San Francisco, the SFPD later found his ties to the place.
Who is Luigi Mangione? Suspect was reported missing weeks before the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Luigi Mangione was born and raised in a real estate family in Maryland and graduated from Baltimore's Gilman School. After finishing high school Mangione went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied computer science and worked as a teaching assistant in AI at Stanford University in the summer of 2019. After graduating from Pennsylvania, Mangione started a job as a developer at TrueCar but was laid off in 2023.
Since getting laid off, Mangione has traveled to several places, including Japan and Hawaii. The friends he made in Hawaii spoke to various news outlets and informed them that Mangione struggled severely with his back pain. His cover photo on X appeared to be an X-ray of his spine with giant screws, which required surgery. Mangione reportedly went through the surgery earlier this year and hasn't been in touch with his relatives since then. Ultimately, on November 18, his mother filed a missing persons report with the San Francisco Police Department, urging the police to look for her son. Some of the sources revealed Mangione may have held a grudge against Thompson because of his experience with the medical industry.
On Monday morning a McDonald's worker in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized Mangione eating at the restaurant. The employee called 911, and immediately two cops responded to the restaurant to question Mangione. When asked to show ID, Mangione provided a fake one that the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel. Upon further searching, police found a gun and a suppressor that resembled the weapon used in the shooting of Thompson. Mangione was detained by the police and was charged with one count of forging a document, possession of a loaded firearm without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing false identification and instruments of crime, and second-degree murder charges.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro praised the McDonald's employee for his courage. In a press conference, he said,
"I want to ask all of our fellow Pennsylvanians to demonstrate the same type of thoughtfulness and courage and smarts as the individual at McDonald's did this morning and help law enforcement here in Pennsylvania as we continue with our investigation."
Mangione's family released a statement on Facebook that read,
"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media..our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved."
Trending
According to the authorities, Mangione is currently being held in Pennsylvania but soon will be extradited to New York.
Reply
