The FBI spoke to Luigi Mangione’s mother the evening before his arrest, telling her that he resembled the suspect wanted in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, law enforcement officials said. Members of the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force question Kathleen Mangione on Sunday after receiving a tip from San Francisco police.
The tip was based on a missing person’s report the family had filed with the police department in November, the sources revealed, according to the New York Post. San Francisco police alerted federal authorities after recognizing the 26-year-old’s face in surveillance footage released by the NYPD following the fatal shooting of Thompson, 50, last week.
No Random Arrest
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However, Mangione’s mother expressed doubt, saying she wasn’t entirely sure the person in the photos was her son. The suspected shooter was arrested the next morning at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, before federal authorities had the chance to inform the NYPD about their conversation with his mother, sources said.
According to the report, his mother filed a missing person’s report with San Francisco police on November 18. She said that she had not been in contact with her son since July 1 and was unaware of his current location.
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The suspected assassin had reportedly disappeared for several months, leaving the U.S. to embark on a solo trip to Asia to “find peace.” He then unexpectedly returned, allegedly to carry out the murder of Thompson.
“Our family is shocked and deeply devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the Mangione family said in a statement shared on social media by Nino Mangione, a Republican state legislator from Maryland, on Monday.
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson as the UnitedHealthcare CEO was walking to the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue, where the company’s parent was hosting its annual investor conference on December 4.
Family Was in Disbelief and Shock
A University of Pennsylvania graduate, Mangione led authorities on a five-day manhunt, which ended when he was arrested at a fast-food restaurant after an employee identified him and alerted the police.
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At the time of his arrest, Mangione was found with four fake IDs, a 3D-printed gun equipped with a homemade silencer, and a handwritten manifesto that criticized UnitedHealthcare and accused health insurance companies of corporate greed, according to authorities.
Mangione is facing charges of murder and is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges related to guns and forgery, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
On Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that the accused killer could be extradited from Pennsylvania to New York as soon as Tuesday to face murder charges for the brutal killing.
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Mangione had been contesting extradition orders that aimed to bring him back to New York.
“Indications are that the defendant may waive, but that waiver is not complete until a court proceeding,” Bragg said during a public safety press conference in Times Square.
“Until that time, we’re going to continue to press forward on parallel paths, and we’ll be ready whether he’s going to waive extradition or contest extradition.”