CEO slaying: Suspect’s fingerprints confirmed to match prints at NYC shooting scene, police say

Dec. 11 (UPI) — DNA and other evidence taken from the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson now appear to match fingerprints found at the New York City shooting scene, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Smudged fingerprints taken from a cell phone, water bottle and remnants of a KIND protein bar in New York reportedly match prints sent from Altoona, where 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was found and later arrested Monday in north-central Pennsylvania, ABC News, CNN and NBC reported.

In addition, the ghost gun allegedly on Mangione at the time of his arrest matched the three shell casings found at the scene in Manhattan, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed Wednesday.

Thompson’s death laid bear the public’s deep and open disdain for the healthcare industry. The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were written on the shell casings and are words commonly used by healthcare providers to deny coverage to clients.

Reports say Mangione suffered from a “devastating” back condition called spondylolisthesis which is caused by a vertebra slipping out of place and pressure is applied on the bones.

“First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania,” Tisch said Wednesday afternoon, adding the weapon is now at a NYPD crime lab. The fingerprints were the first to be confirmed to tie Mangione to the scene.

Mangione was charged Monday evening by New York prosecutors with second-degree murder, three weapons-related counts and a fifth count of possession of a forged document related to the Dec. 4 killing of Thompson, 50, outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on the way to an investor meeting, according to the court docket.

Mangione was arrested after a witness at a McDonald’s in Blair County recognized him from media reports and online photos. A diner reported Mangione’s presence to the McDonald’s worker who then called the police.

He is currently fighting extradition back to the Empire State. A flurry of handwritten notes in a notebook is being looked at as a possible confession, according to officials, with Mangione allegedly writing in part the “parasites had it coming.”

“He has constitutional rights and that’s what he’s doing,” Mangione’s defense attorney Thomas Dickey told reporters Tuesday in addressing the extradition challenge.

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday held him without bail where Mangione reportedly will plead not guilty to gun charges. The judge gave New York prosecutors 30 days to produce a warrant for his likely New York extradition.

Dickey indicated that Mangione — a former class valedictorian, well-to-do Maryland native and former Ivy League student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia — also will plead not guilty to the New York charges.

While police escorted him into the Blair County courthouse before 2 p.m. EST Tuesday, Mangione struggled with about a half dozen officers and yelled out to media in the area.

“It’s completely out of touch and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” he said.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said it will seek a warrant to force his return with New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul saying she’ll sign the request “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable,” the governor wrote in a statement.

On Wednesday, Dickey told Good Morning America he had “not been made aware of any evidence that links the gun that was found on his person to the crime” and cautioned the public to not speculate on possible evidence but to take it “in its entirety” and not “out of context.”

“A lot of guns look the same,” Mangione’s lawyer said. “People put out certain things, parts of different things,” he said, adding that he believes “any lawyer involved in this situation would want to see it all.”

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