Ex-Penn student charged with murder in death of UnitedHealthcare CEO; traveled through Philly and Pittsburgh before arrest in Altoona, officials say

At a police news conference Monday evening in Altoona, Gov. Josh Shapiro hailed the arrest of Luigi Mangione and decried online comments celebrating the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as "deeply disturbing."

"Brian Thompson was a father to two.He was a husband and he was a friend to many, and yes, he was the CEO of a health insurance company in America," Shapiro said.

"We do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint. I understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system, and I have worked to address that throughout my career, but I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most in a civil society."

At Penn, Luigi Mangione studied computer science and mathematics, formed his own gaming club, and professed an interest in pursuing video game design as a career.

“In high school, I started playing a lot of independent games and stuff like that, but I wanted to make my own game, and so I learned how to code,” he told the Penn’s public relations department in a 2018 profile of his club, which the university deleted Monday. “I just really wanted to make games.”

He spent at least part of his time there living in Lauder House, a large student dormitory on Walnut Street, according to voter registration records, and posted photos to his social media taken at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Luigi Mangione will face charges in Pennsylvania including forgery, false identification to law enforcement, and carrying a firearm without a license, according to a newly released criminal complaint detailing his arrest.

Altoona police responded to a McDonald's on East Plank Road just after 9 a.m. Monday after receiving a call about a person who resembled the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, according to the complaint. Mangione has been wearing a medical mask and a beanie when police arrived.

Responding officers found Mangione sitting at the rear of the restaurant at a table using his laptop, the complaint said. Police asked Mangione to pull down his medical mask, and recognized him as the suspect in Thompson's murder when he complied.

Neighbors near a former home of Luigi Mangione's family in Towson, Md. declined to comment when visited by a reporter Monday.

A sign on a home on Buckley Court where Mangione's family formerly resided, indicated the current occupants purchased the house in June.

"We do not know the Mangione family, have no relations with them, do not know how to contact them, have never met them, wouldn't know them if we ran into them," the sign read.

A native of Towson, Md., Luigi Mangione graduated in 2016 as valedictorian of the Gilman School, a prestigious boy’s academy in Baltimore. And his large, extended family has had deep civic ties to that area for generations.

His grandfather, the late Nicholas Mangione, was a “self-made real estate developer who owned country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station” the Baltimore Sun said in a 2008 obituary.

The elder Mangione’s golf clubs — Hayfields Country Club, in Cockeysville, Md., and Turf Valley Resort, in Ellicott City, Md. — became family-run businesses, as he groomed his five sons and five daughters to take over as executives, the Washington Post reported in 2003.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione started a club for aspiring video game developers.

“In high school, I started playing a lot of independent games and stuff like that, but I wanted to make my own game, and so I learned how to code,” Mangione, then a junior, told Penn Today, a university publication, in December 2018. The club — the University of Pennsylvania Game Research and Development Environment (UPGRADE) — aimed to draw not just computer science majors, but anyone "passionate about game development," according to Mangione. It appears to still be active.

Mangione's ties to Penn drew immediate scrutiny Monday, as news spread of his arrest. The university, which confirmed that he graduated in May 2020 with both bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering, removed the Penn Today article Monday afternoon.

One local health-care company cautioned employees about drawing public attention to where they work in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s death.

A Friday email to associates from Independence Blue Cross president and CEO Gregory E. Deavens, obtained by The Inquirer, encouraged them to “limit your wearing of IBX- or AmeriHealth-branded apparel or accessories while commuting or out in public.”

The email made clear that Independence had not received direct threats to its employees or facilities. The apparel suggestion is “strictly out of an abundance of caution,” it said.

Luigi Mangione will face gun charges in Altoona before being extradited back to New York to face charges in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, officials said at a news conference Monday.

Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives at the NYPD, said that he did not have a timeline for the extradition of Mangione, but it would occur "at some point."

Kenny added that Mangione had a ghost gun in his possession at the time police arrested him at a McDonald's in Altoona. An employee at the restaurant phoned in a tip to police as Mangione was "sitting there eating," Kenny said.

In a news conference Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed Luigi Mangione, 26, was a person of interest in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He was taken in for questioning in an Altoona, Pa. McDonald’s earlier in the day.

According to Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives at the NYPD, Mangione was raised in Maryland and was most recently known to have lived in Honolulu, Hawaii. Officials said he went to college in Pennsylvania.

Social media accounts under Mangione's name say that he was a University of Pennsylvania student.

Authorities are questioning a man in Altoona, Pa., in connection with the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s fatal shooting that took place outside a Manhattan hotel last Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

The early morning killing of Brian Thompson has stumped authorities and enthralled the general public as more details of the shooting come to light. Ammunition used in the killing had “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” written in permanent marker; a backpack believed to belong to the suspect was found with Monopoly money inside; and the weapon used may have been a “veterinary pistol” used to put down animals without causing loud noise.

That final detail is what drew authorities to Pennsylvania. The man in Altoona is alleged to have a gun similar to the one used in Thompson’s murder, according to various news outlets.