Suspected Midtown assassin Luigi Mangione‘s fingerprints appear to match those found on pieces of evidence that the NYPD recovered in the investigation into United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson’s execution a week ago, sources familiar with the case reported Wednesday.
The revelation came mere hours after Mangione’s lawyer declared that he saw no evidence directly linking his client to the brazen slaying of Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel on West 54th Street in Midtown early on the morning of Dec. 4 — a crime that shocked the city and nation.
The first clear images of the shooter released by the NYPD came from a local Starbucks not far from where Thompson lost his life. Inside the shop, authorities said, Thompson’s alleged assassin purchased a bottle of water and a Kind bar, the remains of which were later found discarded in a plaza as he made his escape.
Initially, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that the fingerprints found on the bottle and wrapper were unable to yield any matches in the NYPD system.
But after Mangione’s arrest on Monday at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, PA, authorities said Wednesday, local police took his fingerprints at the stationhouse for analysis which found an apparent match to the prints lifted off the water bottle and Kind bar wrapper in Midtown.
If confirmed by the NYPD, the apparent print match adds to the already mounting evidence against the 26-year-old Mangione, who was found on Monday in possession of a 3D-printed gun and suppressor, along with the same fake ID police believed him to have used during his Upper West Side hostel stay.
Meanwhile, Mangione’s Pennsylvania legal counsel, Thomas Dickey, mainted in several interviews Wednesday that he believes his client is innocent of the infamous crim, and should be treated as such by the public until proven otherwise.
“I don’t even know if this is him or whatever,” Dickey told The Hill. “So, we’re going to test those waters and give the government a chance to bring some evidence forward,” while adding that he has not yet “seen any evidence.”
Meanwhile, ABC News reported that the manifesto recovered from Mangione’s possession on Dec. 9 contained musings about killing a CEO.
“What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean counter convention,” one passage allegedly said.
Meanwhile, New York officials — led by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg — are seeking to extradite Mangione back to the Big Apple on second-degree murder charges; the suspect fought the extradition inside a Pennsylvania courthouse Tuesday. A follow-up hearing is expected in the case within the next 14 days.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she would sign a request for a governor’s warrant “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable.”
