Police make arrest in shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thomspon: NPR

In this photo from video, NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny answers questions during a news conference Monday in New York.

New York City Mayor’s Office/AP

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New York City Mayor’s Office/AP

Police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, have arrested a man suspected of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The man in custody was identified by the New York Police Department as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. Mangione is currently considered a “person of interest” in the case, which sparked a nationwide manhunt and heated debate about the state of for-profit health care in the United States.

According to police, he was found with a ghost gun believed to have been used in the murder, as well as a fake ID and a handwritten three-page document detailing his motivation. NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny said the document in Mangione’s possession showed a certain “antipathy toward corporate America.”

During the news conference with NYPD Police Chief and embattled Mayor Eric Adams, police said an employee at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized Mangione from photos released by police and called local authorities.

Thompson was shot and killed in Manhattan on Wednesday in what New York police described as a “brazen, targeted murder.” Corporal August Stickel of the Altoona Police Department said Mangione was arrested at the fast food restaurant this morning on “unrelated charges.”

Social media sites that appear to belong to Mangione paint a complicated picture of an Ivy League-educated data engineer with an interest in philosophy and high-minded literature.

In an online review of the book by “Luigi Mangione”. Industrial society and its futureIn the anti-technology essay by “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, the reviewer wrote: “It is easy to quickly and thoughtlessly dismiss this as a madman’s manifesto in order to avoid confronting some of the unpleasant problems it identifies.” But it is simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society were.”

After the shooting, some vocal critics of the U.S. health care system said the shooter’s actions may have been the inevitable result of a system that puts profits over people’s well-being.

Images of the suspected gunman – masked and smiling in security camera footage – were circulated on social media as the face of a modern-day folk hero who had taken action against a system seen as rife with corruption.

As praise for the act of violent vigilantism grew, some companies removed their executives’ biographical information and photos from their websites.

On a Facebook page that appeared to belong to Mangione, comments since his identification as a person of interest have ranged from laudatory to insulting.

“I would like to donate to your defense fund,” one poster wrote in support.

“Thank you for your service, King,” said another.

Others expressed a desire to see Mangione jailed for life or face the death penalty.

“He’s finished. Lock the key away. “Murder is illegal, okay?” wrote one critic.