Luigi Mangione is in custody after five days on the run, in which he evaded authorities in three major cities before he was recognized as he munched on a McDonald’s hash brown.
The saga has gripped the nation, with speculation about the alleged gunman’s motive, identity, and his background running wild.
Below is a look at the 26-year-old’s time on the run, broken down day-by-day since the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead on a Manhattan sidewalk on Wednesday.
Day 1: A Slaying in Plain Sight
Shots were fired at Thompson by a masked gunman in front of the New York Midtown Hilton around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. The sound of gunfire was muffled by a silencer—equipped by a suspect who was dressed head-to-toe in all black—but there was still witnesses to the slaying in plain view.
Reports about who’d been killed emerged hours later and spread quickly: Thompson, a multi-millionaire health insurance CEO, had been shot dead on the sidewalk just blocks away from Times Square. By then, however, the CEO’s assassin was long gone, authorities said, having sprinted through an alley and hopped on an e-bike that he rode into Central Park.
The coordinated escape and his use of a silencer led to speculation that the killer might be a paid assassin. By Wednesday evening, police still had little information on the gunman beyond grainy photos and video of the slaying. The still-unnamed suspect had—for the time being—gotten away.
Day 2: A Smile Gone Viral
Police on Thursday released what were the clearest photos of the then still-anonymous assassin to date, which included one where he was flashing a grin while he allegedly used a fake ID to check in to a Manhattan hostel.
That photo went viral, with countless social media commentators fawning over Mangione for his smile.
It was perhaps this photo, which was the first to display more than just the suspect’s eyebrows and forehead, that doomed Mangione on Monday morning when he was recognized by a private citizen and 911 was called.
Police sources later revealed that Mangione—who had until that point kept his mask on the entire time he was in New York, where he only used cash—lowered his mask because he was flirting with a front desk attendant at the hostel.
Day 3: Incognito in Philly and Pittsburgh
Just as he’d entered New York City before Thanksgiving by bus, police revealed on Friday that Thompson’s killer had likely left the metropolis using the same method.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny told reporters on Thursday that Mangione had dumped his e-bike in Central Park and hailed a taxi to the city’s bus terminal, which was just seven miles from where Thompson was killed. Kenny said cameras captured a man who matched the gunman’s description enter the terminal but not leave. He conceded that investigators had no clue which bus he’d hopped on.
After Mangione’s arrest on Monday, however, authorities in Pennsylvania revealed that the alleged gunman had been quietly bouncing around the state, including stops in its two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and others in-between. Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police said Mangione had been “security conscious” and had been successfully “avoiding detection.”
The exact timeline of when Mangione was in each city—and what exactly he did while there—remains unknown. “We do have a good idea of how he got from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh but there are some gaps in time,” Bivens said.
Day 4: An Elusive Backpack Trolls Cops
It was revealed Saturday that police had finally found a backpack that Thompson’s killer was seen with during the attack, but there was no murder weapon inside like they’d hoped.
Instead, they opened the bag—found lying in Central Park—to find a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and a wad of Monopoly cash. Kenny described the backpack as “very distinctive,” asserting that it had to belong to the suspected gunman.
Experts told the Daily Beast that the Monopoly money, like the inscribed bullet casings found on the day of the killing, was “meant to send a message.”
“The monopoly money conveys messages, both that UnitedHealthcare is a ripoff that steals money from patients in order to pay its executives millions, and that it is itself a monopoly,” the psychiatrist Carole Lieberman said. “He may have planned to scatter the monopoly money around the CEO’s body after he shot him, but he forgot to take the bills out of his backpack.”
Authorities in New York, including Mayor Eric Adams, remained adamant that the gunman was going to be caught, despite offering the public no specific leads that the NYPD was following to identify or catch him.
Day 5: Final Full Day of Freedom
It remains unclear exactly how Mangione spent his final day of freedom, but he may have felt he was inching closer to successfully making an escape. Police in New York had little to offer in regards to new leads on Sunday, Mangione’s identity was still a mystery, and he was now at least hundreds of miles from New York City.
Mangione, who is believed to have gotten around by bus, was likely in Pennsylvania at some point during the day. His arrest came during the morning on Monday at a McDonald’s location that was just steps away from a Greyhound bus stop in Altoona, which was 280 miles west of Manhattan and 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Greyhound’s website shows that it offers daily service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with a stop in Altoona. While it’s unclear how long he’d been in the city of 43,000, it’s apparent he was hanging close to its bus station.
In New York, onlookers spotted the police’s scuba team searching in Central Park for more clues and perhaps the murder weapon that Mangione allegedly used to kill Thompson.
Day 6: Busted Hash-Brown-Handed
Mangione’s run from the law came to an abrupt end on Monday morning after he was recognized by a man who urged his friend to call 911 inside a McDonald’s, reports say.
A fast food customer who identified himself only as “Larry” told Fox News that it was his pal who recognized Mangione. Larry said he thought it was just a joke when his friend pointed at the diner in the restaurant’s corner and remarked that he “looks like the shooter from New York.”
Local cops were called and arrived to question Mangione, who was captured on camera eating a hash brown with his surgical mask hanging from just his right ear. Police arrived at the fast food joint shortly after, and a criminal complaint said that Mangione “became quiet and started to shake” after an officer asked him if he’d recently visited New York.
Police said a search of Mangione revealed that he was still in possession of a 3D-printed handgun, a silencer, a hand-written manifesto, and a cache of false IDs. He was taken into custody and booked shortly after, with his mugshot being taken at both the local jail and at a state-run detention center.
He spent the night at the second facility in a solitary jail cell under “maximum security,” authorities told the Daily Beast.