UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s accused killer Luigi Mangione was recognized by an officer in San Francisco days before his arrest thanks to a wanted poster.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing two unidentified sources, claims the officer, part of SFPD’s Special Victims Unit, recognized Mangione on Dec. 5, four days before his arrest in Pennsylvania, when authorities were still looking to identity their suspect on the run.
The officer recognized the 26-year-old due to their involvement in a missing persons case filed for Mangione in San Francisco in mid-November, the Chronicle reported. SFPD’s Special Victims Unit was investigating the case.
Police subsequently contacted the FBI on Dec. 5 to report the possibility of Mangione being the killer, according to the report.
Though it’s unclear how the communication took place and what happened afterwards with the FBI, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told NBC on Tuesday: “This was not a name that was called into us.”
The FBI and San Francisco police would not comment when quizzed by the Chronicle.
Mangione was nabbed at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a tip-off from a worker at the fast-food chain, on Dec. 9. The worker recognized the suspect after police released photos of the accused killer at a hostel in New York.
Mangione was reported missing by his mother, Kathleen, on Nov. 18., two weeks before the shooting, the San Francisco Police Department told CNN. She told officers that she had not spoken to her son since July.
Since his arrest, Mangione is being held without bond on gun and forgery charges in Pennsylvania. He contested his extradition to New York at a preliminary court hearing, where he faces charges of second-degree murder.
