Man in Altoona, Pennsylvania questioned over UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder after discovered to be in possession of fake ID’s and distinct type of gun used to kill Brian Thompson after a worker thought he resembled released pictures of gunman and called police, who then brought 26 year old into custody for questioning.
A man in the Altoona, Pennsylvania, area is being questioned Monday in connection with last week’s UnitedHealthcare CEO killing in Manhattan, after being found with a distinct 9mm pistol with a locked long barrel, similar to the one used in the shooting, according to two sources.
The sources say it is too soon to determine if his case is connected to the slaying of Brian Thompson, 50, but they are investigating it as a potentially significant development. NYPD detectives are headed to the area to question the person and assist investigators, NBCNY reported. The 26 year old has been identified as Luigi Mangione.
UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect id as anti-capitalist with manifesto critical of insurance industry
Is Altoona 26 year old man CEO suspect shooter?
The person of interest, a 26 year old man, was being questioned about the murder after Pennsylvania authorities took him into custody after a worker at an Altoona McDonald’s believed him to resemble released images of the shooter and immediately notified authorities.
The person being questioned was in possession of a gun with a silencer and a fake New Jersey driver’s license, CBS News reported.
Of note, the ‘person of interest’ had fake IDs, including one NYPD believes was used by the killing suspect in New York, along with being in possession of a gun with a suppressor/silencer, similar to the one used in Wednesday’s slaying, according to sources cited by CNN.
Police declined to say whether they believed the person of interest was the gunman who killed Brian Thompson. Prior to the 26 year old being taken into custody, the suspect shooter continued to remain at large, five days after the deadly slaying outside of the midtown, Hilton Hotel, early Wednesday morning.
The pistol used in the CEO’s slaying has been described as a 9 mm bolt action weapon, distinct from other ‘normal guns’ requiring users to manually cycle in tandem with the weapon’s long barrel. The pistol resembles the guns farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise and not atypical of the type of weapon that would ordinarily be used in an assassination.
CEO murder weapon thought to be Brügger & Thomet Station Six
Of note, investigators have yet to locate the murder weapon used during Wednesday’s slaying.
Investigators believe the gunman used a rare, integrally suppressed pistol, possibly a Brügger & Thomet Station Six, a modern reproduction of the British Welrod—a silenced pistol designed for covert operations during World War II.
The Station Six, chambered in either 9 mm or .45-caliber, derives its name from Britain’s WWII-era Station IX, a weapons research and development division that created the Welrod.
‘This is not a common firearm,’ firearms expert Steve Wolf told Newsweek. ‘Very few were manufactured, and they’re mostly used for veterinary purposes. It’s a modern reproduction of a historical assassination weapon.’
Monday’s deveiopments follows police releasing two additional photos of the suspected shooter late Saturday that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle, and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, the gunman’s face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask.
The new photos came after authorities recovered a gray bag possibly belonging to the suspect in Central Park. The bag was taken, unopened, for forensic processing before investigators were to review its contents. Sources later said the bag contained a jacket and Monopoly money, but no gun. DNA testing is ongoing.
Moral dilemma and public spectacle
Along withe bullets found at the crime scene, with the words, ‘depose,’ ‘deny’ & defend’, thought to allude to a 2010 book referencing ‘tactics’ used by health insurance industry to ‘get away’ with not paying policy holders the costs of their medical needs, investigators believe the un-identified suspect is either a former employee or connected to a policy holder who suffered detriment presumably after their policy was denied.
Investigators who believe the shooter may be an insider — having intimately being aware of his victim’s movements before his shooting death — is drawn to the spectacle of the crime and the national attention the case has since drawn.
The ditched backpack with monopoly money (presumably a cryptic message referencing the monopolistic and anti-competitive practise of the private health insurance industry in the U.S), is thought to have been done by design, in the knowledge that investigators would be scouring Central Park for leads, fully aware his movements would be captured on surveillance in the very immediate moments he was seen fleeing Midtown on a bicycle.
Investigators say the suspect ditched the bike on the West 85th st at 7am, before walking west two blocks and catching a taxi (latest released images) and arriving at 7:30 a.m. at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is near the northern tip of Manhattan and offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington.
Investigators don’t know what happened next. They are searching through more surveillance video but have yet to locate video of the shooter getting on a bus or exiting the station.
Police have determined from video that the gunman was in the city for 10 days before the shooting. He arrived at Manhattan’s main bus terminal on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta, though it’s not clear whether he embarked there or at one of about a half-dozen stops along the route.
At around 11 p.m. on the night he arrived, he went by taxi to the HI New York City Hostel. It was there, while speaking with an employee in the lobby, that he briefly pulled down the mask and smiled, giving investigators the brief glimpse they are now relying on to identify and capture a killer.
The shooting has since led to wide avalanche of social media commentators applauding the CEO’s shooting death or at the very least pointing out the moral complicity of private health care companies who make vast riches at the expense of life or death medical issues against policy holders, with the industry effective gatekeepers as to who may get to live or not in certain cases, along with who may be left with reeling debt- a point of view that the gunman was almost certain to be aware of when he took the life of the Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, the head of the largest private health insurer in the U.S.
