As we reported, Luigi Mangione, suspected of shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was taken into custody in Altoona, PA. They got a tip he was at a McDonald’s there and the police immediately recognized him after they asked him to take down the surgical/COVID mask he was wearing.
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Mangione was allegedly found with multiple fake IDs, as well as a gun consistent with that believed to be used in the crime and a manifesto outlining his motivations.
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He has now been charged with murder in New York City. He’s also facing charges in Pennsylvania, including “forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing instruments of crime, and false identification to law enforcement.”
Mangione had an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and he will be contesting extradition to New York.
On his way into the hearing, Mangione started a ruckus as he flipped out and shouted to the assembled reporters.
“It’s extremely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and the lived experience,” he screamed out as he struggled with the police, and they had to drag him into the building.
That scene, visible in the above tweet, is a little different from the smiling picture that is the featured image for this post.
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But the first smiling unmasked picture may have been as a result of a girl who asked him to lower his mask to flirt with him, and that might have helped lead to his capture, according to a report.
Wow. Per @JohnMillerCNN, among the interviews law enforcement has been conducting, they spoke to a female employee at the hostel who said, at one point, she asked the then-masked man to lower his mask while flirting with him, which is when this photo released by NYPD today was… pic.twitter.com/elHa7r70N7
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 6, 2024
Following the hearing, Mangione was escorted back out and greeted by a shouting crowd.
It’s not clear what exactly Mangione meant with his pre-hearing comment, but given all the evidence allegedly found on his person, it looks like they may have him dead to rights. He also reportedly had $10,000 in American and foreign cash and a “Faraday bag,” perhaps to protect his laptop or phone. He told the court he didn’t have any idea where the money came from. “I don’t know where that money came from,” he said. “It must have been planted. I don’t have that kind of cash.” He claimed the bag was just a waterproof bag.
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There’s also word on the “manifesto.” Mangione reportedly said that he was not “working with anyone.”
“I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done,” Mangione wrote in the note, according to three law enforcement sources who spoke to NBC News.
“Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
The three-page note criticized UnitedHealthcare, the broader U.S. health-care industry and corporations.
An arrest warrant for Mangione in New York state court refers to the note as “written admissions about the crime” of killing Thompson.
