A man in the Altoona, Pennsylvania, area is being questioned Monday in connection with last week's UnitedHealthcare CEO killing in Manhattan, in part because he was found with a gun similar to the one used in the shooting, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The sources say it is too soon to determine if his case is connected to the death of Brian Thompson, but they are investigating it as a potentially significant development. According to the sources, customers at a local McDonald's thought he looked suspicious and called police. Arriving officers noticed a fake ID so took him in for questioning.
Once at the police station, the sources said, officers discovered the man had a gun similar to the one used in Thompson's killing, as well as a silencer and a fake New Jersey ID. The suspected gunman allegedly used a fake New Jersey ID when he checked into a Manhattan hostel last month.
Two senior law enforcement officials say the man in Altoona being questioned had the name "Marc Rosario" on his fake NJ ID. Three sources familiar with the matter say the suspected gunman checked into the hostel using a fake NJ ID with the name “Marc Rosario.”
The suspected gunman also may have taken a bus to get out of New York. Investigators are looking into whether the man being questioned had recently gotten off a bus from Philadelphia, according to a senior official. NYPD detectives are headed to the area to question the man, who sources said looked similar to the suspected gunman.
The development comes as a private funeral is being held Monday for Thompson, the 50-year-old executive gunned down at point-blank range as he headed to a midtown hotel for an investors' conference last Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Five days after the shooting -- by a man captured on surveillance cameras across Manhattan -- the killer remains on the loose. The nation's largest police department is after him, along with the FBI. Despite obtaining a clear image of his face among other evidence, authorities have yet to identify him.
UPDATE 2:27 PM EST --
The person of interest nabbed in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from “Unabomber’’ Ted Kaczynski — and apparently hated the medical community because of how it treated his sick relative, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.
Tech whiz Luigi Mangione, 26, of Towson, Md., has not been charged but was taken into custody Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., after an intense manhunt following the coldblooded execution of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last week, sources said.
The former prep-school valedictorian was caught with a gun, silencer, four fake IDs with names used during the killer’s stint in New York City — and a manifesto, sources said.
The manifesto railed against the US healthcare industry, including over its enormous profits and alleged shady motives, sources said.
