Luigi Mangione is due to be arraigned on gun charges
It was just after 9am at the 24-hour McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania when one of the staff members thought a customer looked eerily familiar.
The man tucking into his breakfast bore a striking resemblance to the New York gunman, whose grinning photo had circulated globally in the hours after Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, was shot dead in Midtown Manhattan in a “brazen” attack five days ago.
Alarmed, the employee and a customer compared the pictures to the man, before a discreet call was made to the local police force, who within minutes descended on the fast food restaurant in the city some 280 miles from New York.
The man in question was Luigi Mangione, 26, who had been sitting there nonchalantly with a bag packed with what appeared to be incriminating evidence: a firearm, fake IDs and a handwritten manifesto which railed against healthcare companies.
The gun – a ghost gun which police said may have been made from a 3D printer – had the capability of firing a 9mm round, the size of the bullets used by the gunman to kill Mr Thompson.
The ghost gun found in Luigi Mangione’s possession by police
Hours later, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch triumphantly told reporters Mr Mangione is “believed to be our person of interest in the brazen, targeted murder of Brian Thompson”.
The arrest seemingly brings to an end an intense manhunt that expanded beyond the Empire State and gripped the world.
Its apparent conclusion, Ms Tisch said, was “thanks to the tireless work of the greatest detectives in the world”.
Eric Adams, the New York Mayor, echoed her sentiments at the press conference held shortly after Mr Mangione’s arrest had been announced.
“How did we do it? Good, old-fashioned police work”, he said, praising the NYPD’s decision to release the now infamous photograph of Mr Mangione smiling as he lowered his facemask for a flirtatious encounter with a hostel receptionist on the Upper West Side.
The NYPD released this photo of Mr Mangione smiling during a flirtatious encounter
But it was a McDonald’s employee – rather than an NYPD crack team – that resulted in Mr Mangione’s arrest.
Despite having hundreds of photographs and thousands of hours of CCTV footage of Mr Mangione, Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives, said officers were not aware of his name before the arrest.
Police were quick to address the nation in a press conference some four hours after the shooting.
But since then, there has been complete radio silence, with social media becoming a snowstorm of sleuths.
Multiple questions to the NYPD over several days were batted back with no answers.
Instead, pictures were released with no context and the vacuum left by the officials was filled by conspiracy theorists as media outlets had to rely on sources to inform concerned New Yorkers.
Mr Mangione in the back of a taxi in New York
For more than five days police had frantically searched for the gunman who shot Mr Thompson dead outside the Hilton Hotel at around 6.45am.
The killer struck in one of the busiest tourist areas of the city on one of the busiest days of the year – the lighting of the Rockefeller tree – but police did not appear to have any tangible leads to identify him themselves.
Shell casings from the scene of the shooting had the words “delay,” “deny” and “defend” written on them, according to police, suggesting this was a targeted attack.
The frenzied manhunt involved scores of police officers, drones, divers and multiple police forces.
NYPD officers scoured through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, processed forensic evidence including DNA and fingerprints.
Drones were deployed, as were canine units and scuba divers and officers were sent to carry out door to door canvassing.
Divers conduct a search near the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park – Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America
But it took the police three days to find what they believe was the backpack used by the killer.
They had CCTV of the moment he pulled out his firearm and shot Mr Thompson, 50, multiple times. They had footage of him escaping on an e-bike into Central Park before getting into a taxi to a bus station where they think he fled the state on an interstate bus. They had his fingerprints from a water bottle he had purchased at a nearby Starbucks. But they didn’t have their suspect.
Mr Mangione had been out in the open, quietly enjoying his breakfast in the McDonald’s on East Plank Road, appearing to patiently wait for his capture as he sat with a bag full of what could be incriminating evidence.
When police arrived he was “acting suspiciously”, according to Ms Tisch.
It transpired he had multiple fraudulent IDs and a US passport. Among them was one for Mark Rosario, according to NBC News, which matched the one used by the gunman when he checked into HI New York City Hostel. He had a firearm and a silencer which were both consistent with the weapon used by the murderer.
One of the fake IDs used by Mr Mangione under the name Mark Rosario
They also recovered clothing, including a mask consistent with those worn by the suspect.
Not to mention the handwritten three-page manifesto which apparently railed against the health insurance industry.
“It had to be done. These parasites had it coming,” the manifesto read, according to CNN.
“I don’t want to cause any trauma, but it had to be done.”
The police appeared to have their man. He was arrested on gun charges in Pennsylvania and will likely be extradited to New York City to face further charges.
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But what would have happened had the McDonald’s worker not called in? Would police officers have to wait until the suspect next needed to refuel in the hope that someone would recognise him.
The “linchpin” of the investigation, Mr Kenny said, was the police’s decision to release the photograph.
Addressing the press conference on Monday, he said: “Luckily, a citizen in Pennsylvania recognised our subject and called local law enforcement.”
It does appear that despite the “tireless” work of the police, the capture of this suspected murderer hinged on the fluke of a McDonald’s worker picking up the phone.