Suspected killer Luigi Mangione was apparently shocked after McDonald’s employees recognized him after five days on the run.
Mangione, 26, was arrested on gun charges Monday afternoon at a fast food restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after he allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50. years, outside a Manhattan hotel.
Sources told DailyMail.com that several staff members noticed the masked man, who was sitting quietly reading after ordering a drink at the fast food establishment.
An employee then called authorities after a customer also quietly mentioned to them that he looked like the man authorities had been searching for nearly a week.
When police arrived, they found the suspect wearing a medical mask and looking at a silver laptop, with his backpack on the floor near the table, according to charging documents.
He proceeded to hand officers a New Jersey driver’s license bearing the name Mark Rosario with a date of birth of July 21, 1998.
When a police officer asked him if he had been to New York recently, he “began to shake,” charging documents say.
Officers soon realized that the New Jersey driver’s license was fake, at which point a police officer informed him that he was under official police investigation and that if he lied about his identity, he would be arrested.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday afternoon on firearms charges.
He reportedly gave police a fake ID when they began questioning him.
Upon hearing this, Mangione allegedly provided officers with his true identity, and when a police officer asked him why he lied about his name, the suspect is said to have responded, “I clearly shouldn’t have done that.”
In the end, Mangione calmly and quietly walked with officers outside the McDonald’s, and staff members said there was minimal disruption to their work day.
“We all want to know why and how it ended up in our small town, because it doesn’t make any sense,” one employee told DailyMail.com.
“There’s not a lot of traffic here, it’s not a big city.”
The suspect now faces charges of forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records or identification, instruments of crime and false identification to authorities.
He was denied bail Monday night and is expected to face new charges in the coming days for the point-blank murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Thompson was in the Big Apple to host UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor meeting, where he would detail the insurance company’s huge profits for the year.
Surveillance camera footage showed him walking outside a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan when he was shot three times at point-blank range.
The shell casings were later discovered to have the words “deny,” “defend,” “depose” written on them, in an apparent attack on health insurance practices.
Mangione was denied bail Monday night and is expected to face more charges in the coming days for the point-blank murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
He was located by staff members at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
it is believed Mangione was angry about the way the health insurance industry treated a sick family member, according to the New York Post.
No further details have been shared about that relative or his identity, although online obituaries show Mangione lost a grandmother in 2013 and a grandfather in 2017.
His X account also shows an x-ray from complicated neck surgery.
Mangione is also said to have had a manifesto when he was arrested, which allegedly mentioned UnitedHealthcare by name, noting the enormous size of the company and the profits it generates.
The manifesto went on to more broadly condemn health insurance companies for putting profits before health care, the Times reports.
The former valedictorian was also in possession of a 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer, and police noted that the pistol was loaded with a Glock magazine consisting of six 9mm metal jacket rounds.
A loose 9mm hollow point bullet was also located.
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 5
New York City police had been searching for the shooter for days before Mangione was arrested.
Altoona Police Department officers remained stationed inside the restaurant Monday night as surveillance footage showed the moment Mangione was arrested.
Authorities later confirmed that Mangione got off a Greyhound bus in front of the McDonalds around 9 a.m. Monday morning after leading the NYPD on a cross-country chase.
Staff at nearby restaurants say they were unaware that the killer had been arrested just meters from their doors, simply remembering that local police cars had been nearby.
Officers now believe Mangione had been in Pennsylvania for several days after Thompson’s murder on December 4, and may have previously spent time in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. according to the New York Times.
“We have an idea of how he got from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, but there are some gaps in time,” said Lt. Col. George Bivens.
“And before we start plotting a chronology of his journey, we really need to work through all of that.”