San Francisco Police Identified Suspect In Brian Thompson Murder Days Before He Was Caught

San Francisco police identified the man accused of assassinating United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week several days before he was caught at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.

The news comes as authorities claimed that 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was not previously on law enforcement’s radar when he was arrested on Monday after a customer at the fast food restaurant recognized him based on photos that had been released by police last week.

Sources told the San Francisco Chronicle that an officer in the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit recognized Mangione on December 5 as being the person in the photos released by law enforcement.

The officer recognized him because his family contacted the department to report that he had gone missing after they had not heard from him for several months.

The unit reported his identity to the FBI on December 5, the report said, the very day that the photos were released.

It was not clear how the information was passed to the FBI or if the FBI received or acted upon it, the report added.

The New York Times reported late on Thursday that the suspect disappeared from family and friends over the summer after deciding to go on a lengthy trip to Asia.

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During the trip he reportedly expressed alarm over how people have become over reliant on things like smart phones and social media, the report said. He also bemoaned capitalism and loved the writings of terrorist Ted Kaczynski, commonly known as the “Unabomber.”

Authorities found a notebook on him after he was arrested that included a passage where the writer mentions taking out “the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.” Thompson was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan on December 4 while he was on his way to the UnitedHealth Group’s Investor’s Conference.

“It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” Mangione allegedly wrote in the notebook. The suspect considered using a bomb but wrote in his notebook that it “could kill innocents,” CNN reported. According to authorities, Mangione was also in possession of a 262-word manifesto where he allegedly called out “United” and wrote, “To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.”

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday that a water bottle and Kind snack bar wrapper recovered by police near the crime scene contained fingerprints that match those of Mangione. Tisch also noted that three shell casings recovered at the scene of the crime matched the homemade gun found on Mangione when he was arrested. The 9mm shell casings from the scene of Thompson’s assassination had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. It was initially reported that the words on the shell casings were “defend,” “deny,” and “depose” before police clarified.

Zach Jewell contributed to this report.