A person of interest with a similar gun that was used in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested in Pennsylvania Monday about 233 miles west of New York City, reports said. The man was nabbed while trying to use a fake ID at a McDonald’s and was taken into custody by cops in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He had a manifesto on him when he was taken into custody. It is not yet known whether he killed 50-year-old Brian Thompson in front of the Hilton hotel in New York City, Wednesday.
The reports said the person of interest had a gun, silencer, four fake IDs and other items “consistent” with what authorities were looking for in the case, sources said.
He was nabbed on a tip called into local cops, who then apprehended him, sources said. The NYPD was on its way to Altoona late Monday morning.
Wednesday to Monday: How the 6-day manhunt unfolded
- The killer shot Brian Thompson dead on Wednesday morning when the CEO was entering the hotel to attend an investors’ summit. He fled the spot on a bike and then left NYC on a bus.
- Police tracked the trail of clues that he left including the surveillance footage — from the hostel where he stayed before the murder, the street where he sprayed bullets on Brian Thompson, from the Starbucks where he stopped by just before the murder to get a cup of coffee, a bottle of water and two energy bars.
- The casings of the bullet that he fires to kill Brian Thompson had three words engraved on them: Deny, defend, depose — eerily similar to a 2010 book on insurance woes and the world also refer to the tactic that insurance companies deploy to delay payment.
- After the initial combing, NYPD sleuths concluded that the killer was not in NYC. A backpack was found in the Central Park area similar to the one the killer was seen carrying n surveillance footage.
- New York City mayor Eric Adams said the sleuths probably had a name for the killer but was not disclosing it as it would help the person to flee further.