Luigi Mangione’s mother reportedly spoke to FBI officials the day before he was arrested in Pennsylvania on suspicion of murdering the CEO of a health insurance giant after federal authorities received a tip.
According to the New York Post, a police officer in San Francisco recognized the suspect in surveillance photographs being circulated by New York City police. Mangione’s parents had filed a missing persons report with the San Francisco Police Department in November, after he reportedly went on a solo trip to Asia, apparently without telling them where he was.
The tip reportedly came in four days before the parents were contacted.
Federal investigators with the Joint Violent Crimes Task spoke to Kathleen Mangione, Luigi Mangione’s mother, on Sunday evening in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. She reportedly told the investigators her son resembled the suspected shooter but she said she wasn’t completely confident they were the same person.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was spotted eating a hash brown in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania the following day. An employee at the McDonald’s called police and told them that someone in the restaurant resembled the suspect. He was arrested on murder and gun-related charges after an officer asked him if he’d been in New York recently and he reportedly began shaking. He was allegedly found with a gun that matched the murder weapon and a handwritten manifesto.
Police believe Luigi Mangione took a train to travel to Pennsylvania. For nearly a week, officials searched for the suspect with what appeared to be very few leads. A breakthrough came when a worker at the New York City hostel he stayed at flirted with him and asked him to lower his mask.
The suspect did so, allowing authorities to put out a picture of the killer’s face that went viral, ultimately leading to an arrest.
Before the murder, the alleged killer reportedly vanished for several months after leaving the US for Asia on a solo trip. His mother said that she was unaware of her son’s whereabouts and hadn’t spoken to him since July. Mangione’s friends told The Washington Post that he suffered from a painful spinal condition that could’ve prompted the alleged attack.
“The injury that he suffered was a life-changing, life-altering injury,” one friend told the outlet. “and that’s what may have put him on this path.” According to The Washington Post, Mangione was not insured by UnitedHealthcare. His alleged manifesto reveals he was upset about the state of US healthcare and wanted to take action.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement through his cousin Nino Mangione, a Republican Maryland lawmaker. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.” Mangione is from a prominent Baltimore-area family.
Mangione is currently being held in a Pennsylvania state facility. To be prosecuted in New York City, where the crime occurred on December 4, he needs to be extradited. He is fighting extradition in court, which could delay the process by over a month.
Luigi Mangione’s attorney Thomas M Dickey, who is representing him in Pennsylvania, told reporters this week there is no evidence that ties his client to the crime.
