Luigi Mangione — the suspect in last week's fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City — is now charged with murder.
Manhattan prosecutors late Monday filed murder and other charges against the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, the Associated Press reported, citing an online court docket. The New York Times, citing court records, reported that the initial murder charge is for second-degree murder.
Mangione remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and providing false identification to police, the AP said.
The outlet added that a McDonald's customer in Altoona — which is about two hours east of Pittsburgh — spotted Mangione on Monday morning, notified an employee, and soon police arrived to question him.
Police indicated in a criminal complaint that they recognized Mangione as soon as he pulled down his mask at their request in the restaurant. When they asked Mangione if he'd been in New York City recently, police said he was quiet but started shaking.
Later Monday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that Altoona police arrested Mangione on firearm charges and that he was believed to be “our person of interest."
The AP — citing a law enforcement official unauthorized to discuss the investigation publicly and who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity — said a three-page, handwritten document found in Mangione’s possession includes a line in which he claims to have acted alone.
“To the feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official who spoke with the AP.
The document also contains the following line, the AP reported: “I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
According to the Times, the 262-word "manifesto" also says that as UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalization has grown, American life expectancy has not — and it condemns companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”
The paper added that friends said Mangione lived with significant, sometimes debilitating, back pain, which prevented him from surfing and negatively affected his romantic life; he underwent surgery for it last year.
The Times said R.J. Martin — a friend of Mangione who had lived with him in Honolulu — asked via text how his surgery went, and Mangione replied, “Long story,” and did not elaborate.
“His spine was kind of misaligned,” Martin told the paper. “He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes, he’d be doing well and other times not.”
Nino Mangione — a Maryland state delegate and a cousin of Luigi Mangione — told the Times in a statement on behalf of the Mangione family that they “only know what we have read in the media” and that they were “shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest.” The paper said the statement adds that "we offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Bullet casings found at the scene of Thompson's killing in front of a Manhattan Hilton hotel Wednesday — which New York City police called a "brazen" and "premeditated, preplanned targeted attack" — apparently were inscribed with words referring to health insurance claim denial tactics.
Just hours after the fatal shooting, Thompson's wife said her husband had been threatened. Paulette Thompson told NBC News in a phone call that "there had been some threats. 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."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Police on Monday were questioning a male in Pennsylvania in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in Manhattan, two sources familiar with the matter told WNBC-TV.
Sources told the station that customers at a McDonald's in Altoona thought the male looked suspicious and called police; arriving officers noticed a fake ID and took him in for questioning. Altoona is about two hours east of Pittsburgh. Sources added to WNBC that officers at the station discovered the male was in possession of a gun similar to the one used in Thompson's killing along with a silencer.
Police told the station they believe the suspect acted alone and used a 9mm gun resembling guns farmers use to put down animals without a loud noise.
The station said the male had a fake New Jersey ID, adding that the suspected gunman allegedly used a fake New Jersey ID when he checked into a Manhattan hostel in November.
WNBC added that the male may have taken a bus to get out of New York, and sources told the station that investigators are looking into whether he recently exited a bus from Philadelphia.
Sources also told the station that New York City Police detectives are headed to Pennsylvania to question the male and assist investigators.
More from WNBC:
The development comes as a private funeral is set to be held Monday for Thompson, the 50-year-old executive gunned down at point-blank range as he headed to a midtown hotel for an investors' conference last Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Five days after the shooting — by a man captured on surveillance cameras across Manhattan — the killer remains on the loose. The nation's largest police department is after him, along with the FBI, as the trail takes detectives to Atlanta. Despite obtaining a clear image of his face among other evidence, authorities have yet to identify him.
Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle, and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask.
The new photos came after authorities recovered a gray bag possibly belonging to the suspect in Central Park. The bag was taken, unopened, for forensic processing before investigators were to review its contents. Sources later said the bag contained a jacket and Monopoly money, but no gun. DNA testing is ongoing.
Police told the station surveillance video was used to retrace the gunman's movements, and it appears he left New York City by bus soon after the shooting. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said he was seen on video at an uptown bus station about 45 minutes after the fatal shooting, WNBC said.
Police told the station they believe the suspect acted alone and used a 9mm gun resembling guns farmers use to put down animals without a loud noise.
Bullet casings recovered at the scene of Thompson's killing outside a Manhattan Hilton — which the police called a "brazen" and "premeditated, preplanned targeted attack" — apparently were inscribed with words referring to health insurance claim denial tactics. NBC News reported that three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings were found. Citing two law enforcement officials, the New York Times said police are investigating apparent messages on the casings, specifically words such as “delay” and “deny," which may point to ways health insurance companies attempt to avoid paying patient claims.
The New York Post published a similar report, noting that sources said words such as “deny,” “depose,” and “defend” were engraved on live rounds and shell casings. The Post added that the words are similar to the main title of a 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” CBS News published a video report discussing the apparently engraved words.
Kenny told WNBC that the shooter knew UnitedHealthcare group was holding a conference at the hotel and what route Thompson might take to get to the hotel — and that it suggests the shooter could be a disgruntled employee or client.
According to the station, police said video indicates the gunman was in New York City for 10 days prior to the shooting, arriving at Manhattan’s main bus terminal on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta. WNBC said it isn't clear if the gunman got on the bus in Atlanta or in another stop along the way to New York City.
The station said that around 11 p.m. on the night he arrived in New York City, he took a taxi to the HI New York City Hostel — and that there he briefly pulled down a mask and smiled while speaking with an employee in the lobby, which gave investigators a look at his face.
You can view a video report here about police questioning the male in Altoona.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Kamala Harris has attempted to convince Americans on the campaign trail that rather than growing up the silver-spooned daughter of an affluent couple afforded the luxury of routinely flying back and forth between pricey homes in two countries, she was alternatively the product and a member of the middle class.
A critical component of this narrative is Harris' claim that she worked at McDonald's in 1983 — a claim not reflected in her past résumés and for which the vice president has produced no evidence.
Democrats and the liberal press have attacked President Donald Trump and others who have suggested that Harris' origin story is bogus. The New York Times dutifully did its part on Oct. 20 but accidentally torpedoed the narrative by naming its only other source besides Harris: a hardcore Harris booster.
At the outset, the Times' Heather Knight and Nicholas Nehamas likened doubts about Harris' politically expedient and unsubstantiated claim to birtherism, then shifted the burden of proof onto Trump:
Vice President Kamala Harris has recalled her stint at a Bay Area McDonald’s 41 years ago in introducing herself to voters — a biographical detail relatable to millions of Americans who have toiled in fast-food restaurants. But former President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly accused her of inventing it. Lacking a shred of proof, he has charged that she never actually worked under the golden arches — recalling his earlier false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
President Donald Trump masterfully trolled his opponent while tapping into classic Americana last weekend, donning an apron and serving up french fries to supporters at a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania.
'They don't want to report it because they're fake!'
"Now I have worked at McDonald's," Trump told reporters at the drive-through window. "I've now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala. She never worked here."
In the lead-up to his brief stint as a fry cook, Trump repeatedly mocked Harris over her summer job claim, writing on Sept. 1, for instance, "Kamala said she worked at McDonalds — She never did. Lie!"
"She said she worked and grew up in terrible conditions, she worked at McDonald’s. It was such — she never worked there!" Trump told a crowd in Indiana last month. "And these fake news reporters will never report it. They don't want to report it because they're fake! They're fake!"
According to the Times, "Mr. Trump's seeding of doubts about Ms. Harris's story, while insidious and outside the lines of traditional fair play in politics, advances his goal of portraying Ms. Harris as a fraud."
The first time Harris publicly mentioned ever having allegedly worked at McDonald's was reportedly in 2019, when pandering to striking workers in Las Vegas. Harris suggested in September that she worked at the restaurant during college, echoing a campaign ad from the previous month. On another occasion, Harris suggested that she worked at McDonald's to help pay for law school, which she attended several years after leaving Montreal.
The Times produced no verifiable evidence of Harris' claims. Instead, it took the word of Harris, her campaign spokesman, and hearsay from a woman named Wanda Kagan.
As the Washington Free Beacon has noted, the Times portrayed Kagan as a family friend who heard about the McDonald's gig from Harris' deceased mother. The liberal paper neglected to inform readers that Kagan, the only source backing the McDonald's claim besides Harris and her campaign, is herself a Harris booster who has in recent weeks and months actively supported the Democrat's candidacy.
The Times noted only that Kagan was a "friend who had known Ms. Harris as a teenager and remained in touch with the family for years afterward" — a "close friend of Ms. Harris' when they attended high school together in Montreal, [who] said she recalled Ms. Harris having worked at McDonald's around that time."
The reality is that Kagan is much more than an old friend.
The Beacon noted that Kagan served as a surrogate for Harris during the Democratic National Convention, telling MSNBC in August, "It's an emotional and chilling ride, and I'm just overwhelmed with happiness for my friend, and I'm happy to be alive to be able to witness her now fighting for the people of America."
Earlier this month, Kagan posted a video from a Harris campaign event, captioned, "Blessed to be on the stage with @Vp, and the first one she toasts. Cheers to brighter future with @kamalaharris as president!"
Kagan, the partisan whose hearsay is holding up the Times' rebuttal to Trump's criticism, previously told PBS News that she lost touch with Harris after high school.
"I lost touch after she went to college and then I went to college. But then I stayed in touch with her mom still, and — but then I still had a pretty unstable life again, so I was moving a lot, and so I lost her mom's contact number," said Kagan, adding that she didn't reach out directly again until Harris was San Francisco's district attorney.
If secondhand information from a partisan who wasn't in touch with Harris during her college years is the extent of the Times' evidence, then perhaps it is not Trump who "lack[s] a shred of proof."
Spokesman Charlie Stadtlander told the Beacon the Times' Oct. 20 article "was a thoroughly reported and edited piece of independent journalism."
"The Times stands behind it completely," added Stadtlander.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com
freebeacon.com