After the CEO's murder, San Francisco police gave the FBI a tip about the suspect's identity

NEW YORK – A day after a masked gunman killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York City, San Francisco police gave the FBI an important tip about the suspect's identity: He looked like the man they reported missing last month, Luigi Mangione.

San Francisco police provided Mangione's name to the FBI on Dec. 5, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

That's the day the NYPD released surveillance photos showing the face of the suspected shooter as he entered a Manhattan hostel.

“Among the many tips received by the FBI New York from the public and law enforcement regarding a homicide in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, a tip was received from the San Francisco Police Department regarding the possible identity of the suspect,” the FBI confirmed. statement on Friday.

The FBI statement did not provide further details on the nature of the tip or say when it was received but said New York agents “conducted routine investigative work and forwarded this and other leads to the New York Police Department.”

Mangione was arrested Monday, Dec. 9, after an employee at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pa., called police to report a person eating breakfast at the restaurant who looked like a wanted man.

NYPD Chief of Detectives, Joseph Kenny, said at the time that the department's investigators did not have Mangione's name until he appeared at McDonald's.

A message seeking comment was left with the NYPD on Friday.

The San Francisco department's tip to the FBI was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was attacked and killed outside the hotel where his company was holding its annual investor conference.

The leader of the insurance's parent company, UnitedHealth Group, described Thompson as kind and intelligent Friday in a guest interview published in the New York Times.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty acknowledged that the US health care system is “not working the way it should be” but said Thompson cares about customers and was working to make them better.

The killings are seen as an indication of the violence of widespread anger in the insurance industry. Witty said that people in the company are struggling to understand their murder, as well as the threats against their colleagues.

Police said Mangione was found with a gun that matched the shell casings found at the scene and a three-page letter in which he complained about the high cost of health care in the US and also pointed out UnitedHealthcare for its profits and size. The company, part of UnitedHealth Group, is the largest US health insurer. Mangione is being held in Pennsylvania and intends to plead not guilty to the New York murder charge, his attorney said.

Witty said he understands people's frustration but described Thompson as part of the solution.

Thompson never forgot growing up on his family's farm in Iowa and focused on improving the consumer experience.

“His father spent more than 40 years unloading trucks on grain elevators. BT, as we knew him, did farm work as a child and fished in the gravel pit with his brother. “He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of the people living in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he put first in finding ways to improve care,” Witty wrote.

Witty said his company bears some responsibility for not understanding the decisions being made.

“We know that the health system is not working as it should, and we understand people's frustration with it. No one can design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It's a patchwork built up over decades,” Witty wrote. “Our goal is to help make it work better.”

He said that it is not right that the employees of this company were attacked by threats as they were complaining about the loss of their colleague.

“No worker – whether it's people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes – should have to fear for their safety and that of their loved ones,” he wrote.

A Lakeland, Fla., woman was charged this week with threatening an employee of her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, during a phone call. Police say he quoted the words Thompson's killer had written on the shells and said “you guys are next” during the recorded call.

Police said the gunman waited outside the hotel, where the health insurer was holding an investor conference, on the morning of December 4. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle.

Mangione is fighting efforts to extradite him to New York to face manslaughter charges for Thompson's murder.

Sisak writes for the Associated Press.