San Francisco police tipped FBI that Luigi Mangione could be UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter
The New York Field Office of the FBI on Friday confirmed that San Francisco police provided a tip regarding the possible identity of the suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week.
The tip from the San Francisco Police Department regarding 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was the latest Bay Area connection to surface since the Dec. 4 slaying of Thompson outside of a New York City Hilton hotel.
Mangione had already been identified as a person of interest in the case when he was arrested Monday on firearms and other charges in Pennsylvania. Authorities were tipped off after he was seen at a McDonald's in Altoona. He has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting.
Police in San Francisco had already seen photos of suspect Luigi Mangione days before the shooting after Mangione's mother filed a missing person report with the SFPD, a person close to the investigation told CBS News.
In a statement provided to CBS New York reporter Ali Bauman on Friday, an FBI New York Field Office spokesperson confirmed that "a tip was received from the San Francisco Police Department regarding the possible identity of the suspect."
The FBI subsequently referred that tip and other leads to NYPD as the agency assisted in the investigation.
"Extensive sharing of the photos by law enforcement led to the identification by a citizen and subsequent arrest by the Altoona Police Department," the statement added.
In addition to the missing person report filed with the San Francisco Police Department by Mangione's mother, the suspect had previously spent time in the Bay Area in 2019 when he worked as an artificial intelligence teaching assistant at a Stanford summer program, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Stanford officials confirmed that "a person by the name of Luigi Mangione was employed as a head counselor under the Stanford pre-collegiate studies program between May and September of 2019."
He is currently being held under maximum security at a State Correctional Institution (SCI) Huntingdon, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.