NEW YORK — Fingerprints belonging to Luigi Mangione, the man charged in last week’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, match those found on a water bottle recovered not far from the scene of the deadly shooting, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch spoke about the evidence in the case Wednesday afternoon.
“We were also able, at our crime lab, to match the person of interest’s fingerprints with fingerprints we found on the water bottle and the KIND bar near the scene of the homicide in Midtown,” she said.
It is the first positive forensic match tying Mangione to the scene where Thompson was gunned down outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel on Dec. 4, sources say.
Investigators believe they have also recovered a coffee cup the suspected gunman may have used at a Manhattan Starbucks before the shooting, and have dusted it for fingerprints, a high-ranking police source said.
Mangione was arrested on Monday in Pennsylvania and charged with forgery and firearms violations, and is being held without bail. He appeared in court on Tuesday and contested his extradition to New York, where he will face second-degree murder charges.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot and killed
Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was shot and killed outside a hotel where UnitedHealthcare was scheduled to hold its annual investors conference.
Tisch called it a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” saying the gunman had been lying in wait for several minutes before shooting Thompson in the back and leg.
Police launched a manhunt for the suspect and started piecing together a timeline. Investigators said he fled the scene on a bike and rode up to Central Park, where sources said they later found a backpack that contained a jacket and Monopoly money, but not the murder weapon.
The biggest break in the case came from an Upper West Side hostel where the gunman was believed to have stayed in the days before the shooting. He was seen in surveillance images lowering his mask after sources said the woman at the front desk asked to “see his pretty smile.”
Police later released more images showing him inside a taxi, which they believe he took to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Upper Manhattan and boarded a Greyhound. Investigators believe he left the city immediately after the shooting and had been traveling around Pennsylvania before he was caught.
He was spotted on Monday inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 300 miles away from the crime scene. A customer recognized him and alerted an employee, who called police.
Mangione was found in possession of a fake New Jersey ID, believed to be the same one he used to check into the hostel, and was initially taken into custody on a forgery charge. Police searched his belongings and found a 3D printed ghost gun consistent with the one used in the shooting, along with a U.S. passport, $8,000 in cash and a handwritten note.
Sources tell CBS News investigators are referring to the note as a claim of responsibility. They believe the suspect’s grievances toward UnitedHealthcare and other health insurance companies are what motivated the murder.
In addition to the note, sources said shell casings found at the scene had the words “delay” and “deny” written on them, believed to be a reference used by critics of the insurance industry.
Who is Luigi Mangione?
CBS News has learned the 26-year-old comes from a prominent Maryland family. He graduated valedictorian from a private high school and got his Masters in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” his family said in a statement after his arrest. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
Mangione had been staying at a co-living space called Surfbreak in Hawaii up until 2022, when a spokesperson for the community said he left due to a lifelong back injury that was exacerbated by surfing and hiking. The spokesperson also said they believe Mangione returned to Hawaii in 2023 and started a book club, which several members left over “discomfort in book choices.”
Sources tell CBS News back pain was a major factor in his life and it appeared to be a source of frustration.
“We’re learning that he did possibly suffer an accident that caused him to visit the emergency room back on July 4, 2023,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer.
In recent months, posts tagging Mangione on social media imply he lost touch with friends, with some asking where he was and what he was doing, wishing him the best and hoping that he was OK. His mother filed a missing persons report in November in San Francisco amid concerns he was not communicating.
Pat Milton
contributed to this report.
2024-12-11 19:43:46
