Luigi Mangione, the person of interest arrested in connection with the grisly killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York City, was escorted to his preliminary arraignment in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in handcuffs alongside a squad of police officers from multiple departments.
In the first footage published since his identification as a suspect in Thompson’s shooting death last Wednesday outside of a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, the steely-eyed 26-year-old was taken out of a car by officers and into the courthouse for his initial appearance.
Shortly after Mangione’s arrival, a criminal complaint cited by The New York Times indicated he had been charged with five crimes in Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities, and possessing “instruments of crime.”
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The criminal complaint also described the scene when cops first found Mangione. He was apparently sitting at a table in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with his laptop while wearing a mask. When they asked him to take down his mask and if he had been to New York recently, Mangione reportedly “became quiet and started to shake.” After being taking into custody, the complaint adds that officers found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer in his backpack.
Hollidaysburg is about seven miles away from Altoona, where Mangione was initially arrested on Monday. Police in the area were called upon after a McDonald’s employee recognized Mangione from pictures released by the NYPD and called in.
At his arraignment in the Blair County Courthouse, The Times reports that Mangione was not represented by an attorney. When asked if he wanted a public defender or private counsel for future court proceedings by the judge, Mangione requested to give an answer at a later date. He also declared that he had no mental health or drug history that the court should be aware of.
CNN Correspondent Danny Freeman later told the outlet that he looked “visibly distressed” and “kept his brow furrowed” throughout the appearance.
Mangione, according to Freeman, spoke to the court on a number of points including his identity and prior career.
Most interesting, however, according to Freeman, is the fact Mangione claimed the $8000 in U.S. cash and $2000 in foreign currency recovered by police was not his.
“Mangione actually said at the end of that speech by the prosecution, ‘I’d like to correct two things. First, I don’t know where any that money came from, I’m not sure if it was planted,‘” Freeman described. Mangione then claimed the bag recovered by cops was “waterproof,” dismissing prosecutor’s claims of criminal sophistication, Freeman said.
His mugshot was released by Pennsylvania police Monday evening, where he could be seen sporting a black scarf and coat.
In many of the photos shared by police of the suspect—believed to be Mangione before his identity was known—he was often wearing a blue surgical mask that obscured much of his face.
In one snap captured at a New York City hostel, however, Mangione was seemingly caught without his mask on during a flirtatious moment with a woman working the front desk, according to CNN.
Since his arrest, it has emerged that Mangione was a student of Baltimore’s Gilman School, an all-boys private institution with a whopping $37,000-a-year tuition bill. He also holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s of science in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school.
Mangione’s digital footprint also appears to point to a fractured relationship with a number of loved ones, who attempted to reach out to him on X over the past few weeks.
The Ivy League alum also maintained a Goodreads account with a review record of several radical works, including “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski’s book, Industrial Society and Its Future.
