Luigi Mangione, Person of Interest in Health Care CEO Shooting, Has Ties to Stanford

The 26-year-old man arrested as a person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO appears to have previously worked at Stanford.

Luigi Mangione was arrested in central Pennsylvania on Monday morning. Someone with that name served as a head counselor for the university’s summer program for high school students in 2019, according to Stanford spokesperson Dee Mostofi.

New York City Police Department officials confirmed during a press conference that Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after local law enforcement was dispatched to a McDonald’s, where an employee spotted someone matching the description of the murder suspect.

Altoona police officers took Mangione into custody on an unrelated firearms charge, but he is considered a “strong person of interest” in the death of the insurance company’s chief, New York Mayor Eric Adams said during the press conference.

Police found a firearm and suppressor consistent with the weapon used in the killing in Mangione’s possession, along with a mask and clothes matching the wanted person’s clothing. He also had multiple fraudulent IDs, including one from New Jersey that matched the one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, according to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

A written document that was said to include information about his “motivation” and “mindset” was also recovered.

The arrest comes five days after Brian Thompson was shot outside UnitedHealthcare’s investor conference at the Hilton Midtown hotel in what police have called a “brazen, targeted murder.”

NYPD officials confirmed Monday that Mangione had ties to San Francisco, but they did not elaborate on the connection.

He appears to have worked in Palo Alto from at least May to December of 2019, during which time he advised high school students and residential counselors in Stanford’s pre-college summer programs.

Head counselors also work as teaching assistants and live on campus, serving as “visible role models and leaders” for the programs’ participants, according to Stanford’s website.

A LinkedIn profile that seems to belong to Mangione said he worked with students studying artificial intelligence and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in computer science.

His last known address was in Honolulu, and he was born and raised in Maryland, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.