Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, said a police officer approached him at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning and asked him if he had been to New York City recently, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint. When he was hit, he began to tremble.
Another customer recognized Mangione, who was wearing a mask and beanie, from surveillance footage released by the media as the suspect in the assassination of Brian Thompson, and arrested him just before 9:15 a.m., according to the complaint and law enforcement officials. A McDonald’s employee called the police.
When local Altoona police arrived at the fast food chain, they found the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate sitting at a table looking at a laptop with a backpack on the floor nearby.
They asked the man to remove his medical mask to see his face and “immediately recognized him as the suspect,” the complaint states.
When one of the officers asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, the alleged killer “became quiet and began to shake,” the documents said.
“(The questions) caused a physical reaction from the suspect,” Altoona Police Deputy Chief Derek Swope said at a news conference Monday night.
“He was visibly nervous and seemed shaken by the question. And he didn’t answer it directly, so that alertness really spoke volumes.”
The officers also asked for Mr. Mangione’s identification, and he handed over a fake New Jersey ID that appeared to be the same one he had used to check into a Manhattan hostel before targeting Mr. Thompson.
Follow the latest updates on the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
When the officers checked the identification, they found no one matching the name provided and asked Mangione why he had lied about his name.
Mangione replied, “Obviously I shouldn’t have done that,” and gave his real name, according to the complaint.
He was then handcuffed and taken into custody.
Investigators searched his backpack and found a 3D printed black pistol and a 3D printed black silencer inside. The pistol was equipped with a Glock magazine containing six rounds of 9mm full metal jacket ammunition, documents said.
According to the complaint, Mangione is charged with forgery, unlicensed possession of a firearm, falsifying records or identification, possession of criminal instruments and providing false identification to law enforcement.
He was arraigned Monday night in Pennsylvania state court and ordered held without bail.
