Suspected smiling CEO ‘assassin’ Luigi Mangione arrested, named

The 26-year-old is “a person of interest” in the targeted execution of UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson, a father-of-two who was killed outside a Hilton in New York on December 4.

Mangione allegedly carried a “handwritten” in his possession when he was taken into custody by authorities in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as well as a gun, silencer, four fake IDs and other items “consistent” with what authorities were looking for in the case, The New York Post reported.

A McDonald’s employee recognised Mangione at the Pennsylvania store and called police, Commissioner Tisch said. 

The document suggested he had “ill will towards corporate America”.

He is yet to be formally charged. 

The bust came amid a massive manhunt for the masked shooter, who lay in wait outside Manhattan’s Hilton Hotel where Mr Thompson, 50, was set to speak at an investors’ conference on December 4. 

Mangione approached Mr Thompson on the footpath, pulled out what appeared to be a handgun with a silencer and fired multiple shots at his back, shocking surveillance footage of the incident showed.

Mr Thompson dropped to the ground after he was hit in the back and right calf, with the gunman quickly running off before grabbing an E-bike and riding away.

He was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Suspect was a former Ivy League student

Law enforcement sources told The Post after Mangione’s arrest that the 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania artificial intelligence graduate liked online quotes from “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, writing in his manifesto that “these parasites had it coming”. 

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness,” one of the Kaczynski quotes Mangione had liked read. 

“Science fiction, it is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual’s internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.’’

Mangione allegedly hated the medical community because of how it treated a sick relative. 

Online obituaries show he lost a grandmother in 2013 and grandfather in 2017.

His LinkedIn page indicates that he once worked in an assisted-living facility for the elderly for a few months in 2014, while still in high school.

It is unclear if Mangione has yet made any statements to cops.

Mangione also subscribed to anti-capitalist and climate-change causes, according to law-enforcement sources, citing online activity gleaned by authorities.

He was valedictorian of his 2016 high school graduating class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, where he played soccer, according to online sites. High school tuition at the all-boys school is nearly $US40,000 ($62,050) a year.

He said at the time of graduation that he planned to seek a degree in artificial intelligence, focused on the areas of computer science and cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania, according to an interview with the Baltimore Fishbowl.

The tech hotshot graduated cum laude from the private Ivy League institution in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), Computer and Information Science in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He also completed a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE), Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, his profile states.

His LinkedIn suggests he is a data engineer at a car company based in California, although he lists his current home as Honolulu in Hawaii.

‘He appeared to wait for his intended target’

Mr Thompson’s execution prompted a massive manhunt and a steady drip of at times bizarre clues and revelations.

The shooter’s bullets found at the scene appeared to have the words “deny”, “depose” and “defend” written on them - a potential message from the killer that echoed the title of a book condemning the health care insurance industry’s practice of not paying claims.

Video uncovered during the investigation also revealed the suspected killer’s smiling face, as well as his potential connection to an Upper West Side hostel, where he is believed to have stayed before the murder.

Comm Tisch had told reporters the shooter intentionally targeted Mr Thompson – a father of two sons, whose wife said had been the target of recent threats over his job – as witnesses milled around the hotel.

“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said. 

It is not immediately clear if anyone has claimed the $US10,000 ($15,500) reward offered by the NYPD and CrimeStoppers.

Mr Thompson’s wife, Paulette “Pauley” Thompson, 51, said that before the shooting, the family had received threats relating to her husband’s job leading America’s largest private insurer, NBC News reports.

“There had been some threats,” she said, according to NBC. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.” 

Police sources confirmed to The Post that UnitedHealthcare had told investigators about threats made against Thompson.

Mr Thompson was promoted in 2021 to CEO of UnitedHealthcare, where he earned nearly $US10 million ($15.5 million) the next year, according to the Economic Research Institute.

The shooting sent the investors’ conference, which Thompson was due to speak, into a panic, with witnesses saying the attendees left in shock and tears.

The UnitedHealth Group released a statement expressing shock at Mr Thompson’s death.

“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the statement reads.

Flags at the company’s corporate headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, were flown at half-staff on Wednesday. 

“This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota.” Governor Tim Walz said in a statement. “Minnesota is sending our prayers to Brian’s family and the UnitedHealthcare team.”