Shell casings left where UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was shot to death last week were matched Wednesday with the 3D printed gun police say they found on Luigi Mangione after his arrest in Pennsylvania this week.
New York police officials said fingerprints swabbed from food items near where Brian Thompson was gunned down Dec. 4 match Mr. Mangione’s DNA, further tying the Maryland native and Ivy League graduate to the shooting authorities have described as premeditated.
The 26-year-old suspect was arrested with a manifesto in which he appeared to liken health care industry workers to “parasites who simply had it coming.”
Police said the three shell casings had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on them in a supposed reference to phrases commonly used by insurance companies to refuse claims.
Police said Mr. Mangione was found with the same fake New Jersey identification that investigators say was used to book a room at a Manhattan hostel.
Police said surveillance footage showed Mr. Mangione leaving the hostel roughly an hour before Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was shot dead near a midtown hotel.
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Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to his New York murder charge, as well as his weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania. He is fighting is extradition to New York.
Thomas Dickey, the suspect’s Pennsylvania-based attorney, has told media outlets that he has not seen the manifesto or other evidence police say implicates Mr. Mangione.
The suspect is being held behind bars while the court case plays out.
Mr. Mangione is part of a wealthy Maryland family that owns the nursing home chain Lorien Health Services, a local radio station, Turf Valley Resort and the Hayfields Country Club. He is a cousin of Maryland Delegate Nino Mangione, a Republican.
He attended the private Gilman School in Baltimore, graduating as valedictorian in 2016. He later graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating, Mr. Mangione worked as a software engineer for the online car sales company TrueCar.
His loved ones said they lost touch with him months ago after major back surgery, and his mother filed a missing person’s report for Mr. Mangione on Nov. 18.
Friends in Honolulu, where Mr. Mangione had lived part time since 2022, said lingering back issues affected his social and romantic life. A photo on his X account appeared to be a picture of a spinal fusion surgery he underwent to address a long-standing condition.
The suspect was arrested Monday after a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, spotted him eating there. It ended a frantic, five-day manhunt for a suspect who had evaded law enforcement after Thompson was killed.
As he was being led into a courthouse Tuesday, Mr. Mangione yelled that “it’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience” to the media members nearby.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.