2020 Engineering graduate Luigi Mangione was named as a person of interest in the killing of Brian Thompson (Photo from MyPenn).
The New York Police Department named 2020 Engineering graduate Luigi Mangione as a “strong person of interest” in the ongoing murder investigation of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
An individual spotted Mangione in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa. at around 9:15 a.m. on Monday morning, according to The New York Times. Police held him for questioning throughout the morning, and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified Mangione as the department’s person of interest in the “brazen targeted murder” of Thompson at a press conference around 1:40 p.m.
Tisch said that members of the Altoona Police Department arrested Mangione on firearms charges. Mangione was a computer and information science major and mathematics minor at Penn who also received a master's degree in computer and information science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
At the press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny identified Mangione as a 26-year-old man with ties to San Francisco, Maryland, and Honolulu. Kenney added that NYPD "believe[s] he may have attended college in Pennsylvania."
At the time of the apprehension, Mangione was carrying the same fake identification that was used by the individual believed to be the gunman while checking into a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Nov. 24.
Tisch added that officers “recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” The New York Times previously reported that, at the time of his apprehension, Mangione was carrying a manifesto criticizing health care companies for putting profits above care.
Kenny said that — while the department does not believe the document contains threats toward other specific individuals — ”it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America.”
“He has no prior arrest history in New York,” Kenny said. “Members of the NYPD detective bureau are currently traveling to Pennsylvania with members of the Manhattan District Attorney's office to interview this subject.”
The NYPD has been leading a search for Thompson’s shooter since Wednesday, when Thompson was killed outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Police previously said that they believed the killer left the city by bus.
"It was crucial that we were able to remove him off the streets of America, and we were going to seek him out no matter, no matter where he was at the time," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at the press conference. Adams attributed their finding of Mangione to "good old fashioned police work," citing his matching of the NYPD's description and possession of several items which the department believes will connect him to the incident.
Mangione was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity while an undergraduate student at Penn. The fraternity's house was quiet on the rainy afternoon when the news was announced, though a crowd of journalists flocked to its vicinity — and most dispersed shortly afterwards, though some remained in parked cars to continue watching the house. A Penn security guard stood along the row of houses, which includes several other houses belonging to greek organizations.
Reporters' knocks on the door of the Phi Kappa Psi house went unanswered. Two students who were seen leaving the house declined to comment on the matter, instead lighting cigarettes and walking away.
In 2016, Mangione founded Penn’s Game Research and Development Environment, also known as UPGRADE. The game development club aimed to “foster creative expression and cultivate career skills for the artists, programmers, and creatives interested in game development in the Penn community” and grew to include over 50 members.
Shortly after the press conference, a Penn Today article about UPGRADE which featured several quotes from Mangione was removed from the website, and a link to the page now directs to an error message. In the article, Mangione discussed his interest in programming and his experience founding the club.
In 2017, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported on UPGRADE's attempts to move away from Penn's competitive club culture by admitting anyone who is willing to join without an application.
“We discussed if we would seem more legitimate with an application, but that’s not the environment we’re going for. Our goal is to have fun and learn,” Mangione told the DP at the time. “As long as you’re willing to put in the time, you can be a game developer.”
In 2018, Mangione was inducted into Penn’s Eta Kappa Nu honor society for excellence in electrical and computer engineering.
Staff reporter Sophia Powell contributed reporting to this article.
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