The FBI’s New York Field Office confirmed Friday that San Francisco police provided a tip about the possible identity of the suspect in the shooting Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare last week in New York.
The tip from San Francisco police about 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was the latest connection in the Bay Area to surface since Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing outside a Hilton hotel in New York City.
Mangione had already been identified as one person of interest in the case in which he was arrested on Monday firearms and other charges in Pennsylvania. Authorities were tipped off after he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona. He has been accused of murder in connection with the shooting.
Police in San Francisco had seen photos of suspect Luigi Mangione days before the shooting Mangione’s mother filed a missing persons report with the SFPDa person close to the investigation told CBS News.
In a statement to CBS New York reporter Ali Bauman on Friday, a spokesperson for the FBI New York Field Office confirmed that “a tip was received from the San Francisco Police Department regarding the possible identity of the suspect.”
The FBI then referred that tip and other leads to the NYPD, while the agency assisted in the investigation.
“Extensive sharing of the photos by law enforcement led to their identification by a citizen and subsequent arrest by Altoona Police,” the statement said.
In addition to the missing persons report that Mangione’s mother filed with San Francisco police, the suspect had previously spent time in the Bay Area in 2019 while working as an artificial intelligence assistant at a Stanford summer program, according to his LinkedIn profile . .
Stanford officials confirmed that “an individual named Luigi Mangione served as a lead advisor under Stanford’s pre-collegiate studies program between May and September 2019.”
He is currently being held maximum safety at a State Correctional Institution (SCI) Huntingdon, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
