Luigi Mangione has been identified as a person of interest in last week’s deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police said Monday. The 26-year-old was arrested on firearms charges in Pennsylvania, after being spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, and New York police detectives were heading to interview him amid a massive manhunt for the shooter.
Here’s what we know about Mangione:
Luigi Mangione named person of interest in CEO shooting
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters during a news conference that Mangione was believed to be a person of interest in the shooting. Officers arrested Mangione on Monday morning at the Altoona McDonald’s after a McDonald’s employee recognized him and called police, Tisch said. The officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously, Tisch said.
Officers found a gun and a suppressor on Mangioni that were consistent with the weapon used in the Dec. 4 shooting of Thompson, Tisch said. Police said the gun appeared to be a ghost gun. Clothing and a mask consistent with those of the suspect in the case were also recovered, police said.
Mangione was carrying multiple fraudulent IDs and a U.S. passport, Tisch said. One of the IDs matched the fake New Jersey ID that the shooting suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the shooting, the commissioner said.
A handwritten document that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset” was also recovered from Mangione, Tisch said.
“We don’t think that there’s any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document, but it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
His LinkedIn says he worked at TrueCar, has Ivy League degree
According to his LinkedIn account, Mangione worked as a data engineer at the car-buying website TrueCar. But a company spokesperson told CBS News that Mangione hasn’t worked there since 2023.
Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, a Penn spokesperson confirmed to CBS News. He received a Master of Science in engineering with a major in computer and information science, and a Bachelor of Science in engineering, majoring in computer science with a minor in mathematics, the spokesperson confirmed.
While at Penn, he worked as a teaching assistant and founded a video game development club, according to his LinkedIn account.
At Stanford University in California, Mangione was a head counselor for a pre-collegiate studies program during the summer of 2019, the university said in a statement to CBS News.
He has ties to Honolulu
Mangione’s last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kenny told reporters. According to an Instagram video posted by the Surfbreak coliving community, Mangione lived there in 2023.
He’s related to prominent Maryland family
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, Kenny said. He is related to a prominent Maryland family that owns country clubs, health care facilities and real estate companies, CBS News Baltimore reported. He’s also a cousin of Maryland state Delegate Nino Mangione, who represents parts of Baltimore County.
He graduated from the Gilman School in Baltimore
Mangione graduated in 2016 from the Gilman School, an all-boys private school in Baltimore, according to his LinkedIn account. He was valedictorian for achieving the highest cumulative GPA over four years, according to his LinkedIn page. He captained the Gilman robotics team and also received a scholarship prize in 2014.
James Sandberg, a former classmate of Mangione, told CBS Baltimore that, while he wasn’t “particularly close” with Mangione, he knew him “somewhat well” and said, “He was a nice kid.”
Sandberg said he was “shocked” after someone shared an article naming Mangione as a person of interest in the shooting.
“Thought it was maybe a different Luigi Mangione,” Sandberg said.
People sent him messages on social media before his arrest
In the months leading up to Mangione’s arrest, posts tagging his account on the social media platform X indicate his friends may have been trying to contact him.
“Nobody has heard from you in months,” one post from October read.
Another post from July read, “I don’t know if you are okay or just in a super isolated place and have no service. But I haven’t heard from you in months.”
He had an account on Goodreads
On the Goodreads website, Mangione’s account contained a four-star rating and review of “Industrial Society and Its Future,” written by Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Two health care-related books are on his read tab from 2022, including “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery” and “Back Mechanic.”
The background image on Mangione’s X account shows an X-ray of a spine with hardware in it, reflective of previous surgery. It is not known if this is an X-ray of Mangione’s spine. Mangione’s X account reposted the quote, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” by J. Krishnamurti at least twice, most recently in January 2024.
