Police have arrested a 26-year-old man for killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare

New York:

A 26-year-old man was arrested Monday after the targeted killing of a top health insurance executive on the streets of New York, police said, crediting a McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania who spotted a suspicious customer.

Investigators were questioning a man, Luigi Mangione, in connection with last week’s killing of a UnitedHealthcare executive, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

He is being held by officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after they found a weapon in his possession that New York City Detective Chief Joseph Kenney described as a “ghost gun” capable of firing 9mm rounds and equipped with a suppressor.

The man was spotted at a McDonald’s in the city about 500 kilometers west of New York by someone who tipped off authorities, Jessica Tisch added.

He also had forged identification cards similar to those used by the killer before the killing, as well as a handwritten manifesto on the ills of the insurance industry, The New York Times reported, citing a law enforcement source.

According to Tisch, New York detectives were on their way to Altoona, and Detective Chief Kenney said Mangione had material that showed he had “a distaste for corporate America.”

Police were considering the possibility that the gunman used a long-barreled veterinary rifle, which is commonly used to euthanize animals, in the killing.

The gunman approached Brian Thompson, an executive at UnitedHealthcare — one of the nation’s largest health insurers — and shot him dead last Wednesday in front of bystanders in an attack that was caught on surveillance camera and has since been seen by millions of people.

Brian Thompson was attending an investor conference in the Midtown Business District.

Sufficient video material

Detectives said the suspect fled the crime scene on foot, then rode a bicycle to Central Park before boarding a bus from a terminal in the north of the city that connects New York to neighboring states and beyond.

Police have not confirmed media reports that the words “delay” and “deny” — language often used by insurance companies to reject claims — were written on shell casings found at the scene.

In the video, Thompson is seen standing on the sidewalk outside New York’s Hilton Midtown when a hooded man with the lower part of his face covered approaches from behind and then shoots his 50-year-old victim several times as he falls to the ground.

A released image of a smiling suspect was obtained from a youth hostel where the attacker is believed to have stayed before the attack, with media reports saying he lowered his mask to flirt with the receptionist.

Authorities later discovered a gray backpack in Central Park believed to have belonged to the killer, containing a jacket and Monopoly money, US media reported.

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