A man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, New York City Police Department (NYPD) has said.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, was detained at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning following a tip-off from an employee who recognised him from police appeals.
He was found carrying a “handwritten document” – reportedly described earlier by police sources as a “manifesto” – which “speaks to both his motivation and mindset”, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference on Monday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that from the document, it appeared the suspect had “some ill will towards corporate America”.
However, he said there did not appear to be any “specific threats” to other people in the document.
Officials said the suspect, who was arrested around 230 miles away from the scene of the New York shooting, had a silencer and a gun “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder”.
They said the gun appeared to be a “ghost gun” – a type of weapon that can be assembled at home from parts and without a serial number – and that it was possibly made using a 3D printer.
Mangione also had a fake New Jersey ID matching a document used by the suspect to check into a hostel in the city before the attack, Ms Tisch added.
Brian Thompson shooting – what we know
Mangione, who was born and raised in Maryland and has links to California and Hawaii’s capital Honolulu, was taken to a local police station for questioning.
Detectives from the NYPD are currently en route to Pennsylvania to question him, according to Mr Kenny.
Mr Thompson was shot dead by a masked gunman outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning, while he was on the way to the company’s annual conference.
Footage showed the attacker walking up slowly behind Mr Thompson and opening fire outside the Hilton hotel in what Ms Tisch described as a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack”.
Shell casings found at the scene where the executive was killed had “deny,” “delay” and “depose” written on them.
The gunman fled on foot, then on a bike into Central Park, New York City police said.
In the park, detectives found a grey rucksack they believe he used, containing bank notes from the Monopoly board game, as well as a jacket which may have been worn by the gunman, NBC said on Sunday, quoting sources.
The man took a taxi to an Upper Manhattan bus station from where he could travel to New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC, Mr Kenny said on Sunday.
CCTV emerged showing a suspect coming out of a nearby subway station. It is said to have been filmed at 6.15am – about half an hour before the shooting on Wednesday.
In the video clip, taken from cigar shop Davidoff of Geneva on Sixth Avenue, the man can be seen walking up some stairs to street level.
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It’s about three minutes’ walk from where Mr Thompson was killed, outside his company’s annual investor meeting at a hotel near Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Centre in midtown Manhattan.
The gunman travelled to the city by bus from Atlanta, and investigators are searching for video from that bus station and others along the Greyhound Bus route, three sources close to the investigation told NBC.
