ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The gun discovered on the suspect within the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings discovered on the website of the capturing, New York Metropolis’s police commissioner mentioned Wednesday.
Police mentioned they’re nonetheless analyzing a fingerprint discovered on a cellphone close to the spot the place Brian Thompson, the chief of america’ greatest well being insurer, was gunned down final week.
Mangione, 26, remained jailed with out bail Wednesday in Pennsylvania, the place he was arrested and initially charged with gun and forgery offenses. Manhattan prosecutors had been working to carry him to New York to face a homicide cost in Thompson’s demise.
Investigators are wanting into an accident that injured Mangione’s again on July 4, 2023, police mentioned Wednesday. They’re scrutinizing his Fb profile, which options X-ray photos exhibiting quite a few screws in an individual’s again.
Police are also finding out his writings, which specific animus towards company America and the U.S. well being care system.
Authorities recovered a spiral pocket book that Mangione saved, together with a three-page, handwritten letter discovered when he was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, a regulation enforcement official mentioned Wednesday. Police haven’t disclosed what was within the pocket book.
The letter teased the likelihood that clues to the assault — “some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it” — might be discovered within the pocket book, the regulation enforcement official mentioned. The official wasn’t approved to reveal details about the investigation and spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity.
A regulation enforcement bulletin obtained by the AP earlier this week mentioned the letter disdained company greed and what Mangione referred to as “parasitic” medical health insurance corporations. The prep faculty and Ivy League graduate wrote that the U.S. has the costliest well being care system on this planet and that main companies’ income proceed to rise whereas life expectancy doesn’t, in line with the bulletin.
In his first public phrases since his arrest, Mangione shouted about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” on his approach into court docket Tuesday.
At a quick listening to, protection lawyer Thomas Dickey mentioned that he didn’t imagine there was proof to assist a forgery cost and questioned whether or not the gun allegation quantities to a criminal offense. Dickey additionally mentioned Mangione would contest his extradition to New York and wished a listening to on the difficulty.
“You can’t rush to judgment in this case or any case,” Dickey mentioned afterward. “He’s presumed innocent. Let’s not forget that.”
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York Metropolis, after a McDonald’s buyer acknowledged him and notified an worker, authorities mentioned.
New York police officers have mentioned Mangione was carrying the gun and the identical faux ID the suspected shooter had used to examine right into a New York hostel, together with a passport and different fraudulent IDs.
Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4 as he walked alone to a Manhattan lodge for an investor convention. From surveillance video, New York investigators decided the shooter rapidly fled the town, doubtless by bus.
His actions afterward are unclear, however authorities imagine he took steps to remain off the radar. Prosecutors mentioned at his Pennsylvania listening to this week that when arrested, he had what are often called Faraday luggage for his cellphone and laptop computer to dam indicators authorities can use to trace digital units.
Mangione, a grandson of a widely known Maryland actual property developer and philanthropist, had a graduate diploma in laptop science and labored for a time at a car-buying web site. Through the first half of 2022, he bunked at a co-living area in Hawaii, the place those that knew him mentioned he suffered from extreme and generally debilitating again ache.
His family members have mentioned in an announcement that they’re “shocked and devastated” at his arrest.