More evidence is piling up against Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — including a reported fingerprint match.
Thompson was shot and killed early in the morning on Dec. 4 outside of the New York Hilton Midtown, where the company was holding an investor conference. Police have said they believe this was a premeditated and targeted attack.
On Monday, Mangione was reportedly identified by a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania and he was taken into custody for questioning. In his possession was a ghost gun and suppressor and a manifesto that railed against the health insurance industry. He has been charged with murder, second-degree possession of a forged document, and both second and third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.
CNN reported Wednesday morning that fingerprints investigators collected at the crime scene were a “positive match” with those taken from Magione when the suspect was taken into custody — “the first positive forensic match investigators say directly ties Mangione to the crime scene,” according to “two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.”
CNN Newsroom anchor Jim Acosta reported on the latest developments, including the fingerprints and that Mangione was reportedly “carrying a spiral notebook” when he was arrested, with “handwritten notes” that “allegedly contain lists on how to facilitate a killing,” including a “chilling” entry that “muses about killing, quote, the CEO at
Acosta noted that additional images of Mangione had been released, including one of him “munching a hash brown at the McDonald’s where an employee alerted police and he was taken into custody” and his most recent mug shot.
CNN legal analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo told Acosta it was “clear that the evidence is piling up against him” that he did in fact commit this crime. She pondered what the possible defenses could be, possibly some sort of “psychiatric defense,” given that what had been reported so far was that he came from a wealthy family and was a “brilliant” and “smart, very well-adjusted kid who was a valedictorian of his class.”
“He wasn’t one of these loner recluses, you know — clearly something has happened in his life to put him here,” she continued. “And I think that’s where the evidence is going to focus to see, will they be able to prove that he was responsible for this mentally at this point?”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated with additional information.