The gun found on the suspect in the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings discovered at the scene, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday.
At a separate news conference, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that suspect Luigi Mangione’s fingerprints were found on a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper that were found near the scene of the crime. Police say the gunman bought these items at a nearby coffee shop while waiting for his target.
Mangione, who is 26 years old, was charged with murder in the shooting death of Brian Thompson last week in midtown Manhattan. Thompson was the head of the biggest health insurance company in the United States.
Authorities say that writings that were found on Mangione showed that he hated corporate greed.
A police official said Wednesday that they have found Mangione’s spiral notebook and the three-page handwritten letter that was found with him when he was arrested. The police have not said what was in the notebook.
An arrest was made on Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the letter was found there. It hinted that the notebook might hold clues about the attack, like “some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it,” according to a law enforcement official. The official could not talk about the investigation because they were not allowed to, so they told The Associated Press they would remain anonymous.
Kenny told CBS New York that the reason could have been linked to an accident on July 4, 2023, that sent Mangione to the emergency room.
The AP got a copy of a police report earlier this week that said the letter was angry at what Mangione called “parasitic” health insurance companies and showed dislike for corporate greed and power.
The bulletin says that the graduate of a prep school and an Ivy League school wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that big companies’ profits keep going up while life expectancy stays the same.
Mangione spoke out in public for the first time since he was arrested on Tuesday. He got out of a patrol car and yelled about a “insult to the intelligence of the American people” as deputies pushed him into a courthouse. In Pennsylvania, where he was first charged with gun and forgery crimes, Mangione stayed in jail without bail.
Mangione was being brought to New York by prosecutors in Manhattan. Tuesday, there was a short hearing in Pennsylvania. Thomas Dickey, the defense lawyer, said that Mangione will not agree to extradition and instead wants a hearing on the matter.
Dickey said afterward, “You can not judge this case or any case too quickly.” “He is thought to be innocent.” “Let us not forget that.”
Authorities say Mangione was arrested in Altoona, which is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of New York City, after a customer recognized him and told a worker.
Police in New York say Mangione had a gun similar to the one used to kill Thompson. He also had a passport and other fake IDs with him, including the same fake ID that the suspected shooter used to check into a New York hostel.
Thompson was killed on December 4 as he walked alone to a hotel in Manhattan for an investor meeting. He was 50 years old. Investigators in New York used surveillance video to figure out that the shooter quickly left the city, most likely on a bus.
It is not clear what he did after that, but police think he did something to avoid being caught. At his hearing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, prosecutors said that when he was arrested, he had bags on his cellphone and laptop that stop those devices from sending signals that can be used to track them.
Mangione was the grandson of a famous Maryland real estate developer and philanthropist. He had a master’s degree in computer science and used to work at a website where people could buy cars.
He stayed at a “co-living” space in Hawaii during the first half of 2022. People who knew him said he had severe and sometimes crippling back pain there.
People close to him said in a statement that they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.