Luigi Mangione latest: Gun found on suspected killer matches casings found at United CEO’s murder, cops say

Luigi Mangione’s lawyer is a seasoned trial attorney based in Pennsylvania with more than 40 years of experience.

Thomas Dickey was brought onto the case on Tuesday, one day after his client was arrested in a McDonald’s in the town of Altoona. The 26-year-old now faces a second-degree murder charge in connection to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by New York prosecutors who are seeking his extradition to the state.

Dickey said he expects his client will plead not guilty.

Rhian Lubin has the full details.

Senator Ed Markey has called for the ban of 3D-printed ghost guns, similar to the weapon found on shooting suspect Luigi Mangione and the one used in the killing of Brian Thompson.

The Massachusetts lawmaker proposed the passing of the “3D Printed Gun Safety Act” to stop the “proliferation of these dangerous guns”.

“3D printed ghost guns are untraceable homemade weapons that can evade metal detectors. We must pass my 3D Printed Gun Safety Act and stop the proliferation of these dangerous guns,” the Democrat wrote on X on Wednesday.

The weapon carried by Mangione upon his arrest on Monday, which police believe to be 3D printed, matches there shell casings at the crime scene in Midtown Manhattan last Wednesday, according to NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Set with the task of tracking down a fugitive from the law, you can guarantee social media will track them down in record time – even if the only thing to go by is a small, three-inch gap between a mask and a hood. As was the case with the suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

The NYPD released a set of images taken in the back of a taxi on Sunday, and within less than 24 hours, the internet had gleaned from the dark, bushy eyebrows alone that it was 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, a Baltimore-born graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, who comes from a prominent family.

But once found, the circus didn’t stop there. As well as identifying the suspect, social media sleuths tracked down his LinkedIn, Twitter – even his Goodreads – profiles. And just as fast came the memes, objectification and reactionary vlogs.

First, BookTok began analysing his taste in literature, questioning whether Harry Potter and the Hunger Games books “radicalised” him (in all seriousness, he did review the Unabomber’s manifesto, calling Ted Kaczynski “an extreme political revolutionary”).

Emma Clarke’s analysis in full is below.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are spending millions of dollars trading “meme coins” themed around Luigi Mangione’s alleged fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week.

Many of the coins listed on crypto sites like pump.fun sport supportive names including “Free Luigi Mangione” and “Justice for Luigi Mangione.”

One such coin, simply named Luigi, launched on Monday, the same day Mangione was charged with murder in New York. It briefly achieved a market capitalization of more than $76 million dollars.

“When someone outside the crypto-bubble ... encounters headlines like this, they view it as absolutely insanity,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin told Newsweek of the phenomenon.

The suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson went missing and cut off contact with family and friends last month after undergoing back surgery, it has emerged.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and charged with murder over the “targeted” shooting of the healthcare executive in Manhattan on December 4.

While the motive for the attack is still under investigation, new details are emerging about Mangione’s own health issues – and the impact they appear to have had on his life.

The Ivy League college graduate suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain and underwent major surgery for it in 2023, a friend told The New York Times.

James Liddell reports.

Brian Thompson was laid to rest at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on Monday.

That same day, Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with murder in connection to the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death.

The 26-year-old suspect was taken into custody in Altoona and is now being held without bond in Pennsylvania as he faces charges in two states. Mangione appeared for a hearing on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where he fought extradition to New York to face charges.

Ten days before the exec was shot dead outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, the suspected shooter was believed to have traveled to New York City on a Greyhound bus. Five days after the shooting, Mangione was in handcuffs.

Here’s everything we know so far in the build up and aftermath of the fatal attack on the 50-year-old insurance CEO:

When the New York City Police Department caught up with the man accused of killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, they found him with multiple fraudulent IDs and a 9mm “ghost gun,” according to authorities.

What is a ghost gun? Since the rise of 3D printers in the early 2010s, these untraceable firearms have become more and more common in American criminal cases.

Yet because these weapons have no serial numbers, it’s basically impossible to know how many have been sold, how many are in circulation, and the number used in crimes.

Io Dodds reports.

Luigi Mangione allegedly laid out his plot to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a spiral notebook, including a chilling “to-do list” and plans considering using a bomb in the Manhattan attack.

The notebook was found alongside a 262-page manifesto, a ghost gun, silencer and false ID cards in the shooting suspect’s possession at the time of his arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday, according to CNN.

Inside the notebook was a to-do list outlining tasks to be completed to carry out the killing, as well as notes that justified those plans, a source told the network.

James Lidell reports.

Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO gunman Luigi Mangione repeatedly spoke of his anger at the healthcare system on Reddit, according to archived post.

Mangione, who had a spinal fusion surgery in 2023, complained on the site that medical authorities didn’t take people’s pain seriously, The Washington Post reports.

“Tell them you are ‘unable to work’ / do your job,” he wrote in one post. “We live in a capitalist society. I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”

In another post, he told readers they could fake difficulty using their feet to convince doctors to give them back surgery.

“This is the absolute nuclear option, but there comes a point where it’s just ridiculous that people won’t operate on your broken spine,” he said.

The Luigi Mangione case keeps getting stranger.

The alleged gunman who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has retained a lawyer, but the attorney, Thomas Dickey, has declined to say who hired him.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna comment,” he told CNN.

Nationwide fundraisers have sought to funnel funds for Mangione’s legal defense.

Here’s more on Dickey.