Gun found on suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying matches shell casings at scene, police say | News, Sports, Jobs

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The gun found on the suspect in the slaying of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the scene of the shooting, New York’s police commissioner said Wednesday.

Suspect Luigi Mangione’s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and snack bar wrapper that police found near the scene in midtown Manhattan, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at an unrelated news conference. Police earlier said they believed the gunman bought the items at a nearby cafe while waiting for his target.

Mangione, 26, was charged with murder in last week’s shooting of Brian Thompson, who ran the largest health insurance company in the United States. Mangione remained jailed without bail Wednesday in Pennsylvania, where he was originally arrested and charged with weapons offenses and forgery. Manhattan prosecutors were working to bring him to New York.

Authorities said writings found in his possession suggested a hatred of corporate greed.

They recovered a spiral notebook that Mangione kept, along with a three-page, handwritten letter found when he was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, a police official said Wednesday. Police have not disclosed what was in the notebook.

The letter teased the possibility that clues to the attack — “some unbroken notes and to-do lists that illuminate the gist of it” — could be found in the notebook, the law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to release information about the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

New York Police Department Senior Detective Joseph Kenny told CBS New York on Tuesday that the motive may have been related to an accident that sent Mangione to an emergency room on July 4, 2023.

A law enforcement bulletin obtained by the AP earlier this week said the letter disparaged corporate greed and what Mangione called “parasitic” health insurance companies. The prep school and Ivy League graduate wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that corporate profits continue to rise while life expectancy does, according to the newsletter.

In his first public words since his arrest, Mangione shouted an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” on his way to court Tuesday.

At a brief hearing, defense attorney Thomas Dickey said he did not believe there was evidence to support a forgery charge and questioned whether the gun charge amounted to murder. Dickey also said Mangione would contest his extradition to New York and that he wanted a hearing on the matter.

“You can’t rush to judgment in this case or any case,” Dickey said afterward. “He is presumed innocent. Let’s not forget that.”

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