The suspect, identified by police as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, had a gun believed to be the one used in Wednesday’s attack on Brian Thompson, as well as writings expressing anger at corporate America, police said.

Here are some of the latest developments in the investigation:

Where was the man captured?

Mangione was taken into custody at around 9:15 a.m. after police received a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh, police said.

Mangione was being held in Pennsylvania on gun charges and will eventually be extradited to New York to face charges in connection with Thompson’s death, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

What evidence did police find?

In addition to a three-page, handwritten document that suggests he harbored “ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said Mangione also had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home and is difficult to trace.

Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a U.S. passport, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. Officers also found a sound suppressor, or silencer, “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” the commissioner said.

He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, Tisch said.

What do we know about Mangione?

Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and that his last known address is in Honolulu.

Mangione, who was valedictorian of his Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday.

He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication.

His social media posts also suggest that he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations.

The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. Some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent people, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have had children attend the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington.

In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things,” according to a post on the school website. He praised their collective inventiveness and pioneering mindset.

Mangione took a software programming internship after high school at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs on the hit strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis parent company Take-Two Interactive said Monday it would not comment on former employees.

He more recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, according to the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company.

“While we generally don’t comment on personnel matters, we confirm that Luigi Mangione has not been an employee of our company since 2023,” TrueCar CEO Jantoon Reigersman said by email.

Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report.

The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance.

Luigi Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of Nick Mangione, according to the grandfather’s obituary. Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes ranging from Catholic organizations to colleges and the arts.

One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesman for the lawmaker’s office confirmed Monday.

The shooting and a quick escape

Police said the person who killed Thompson left a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at 5:41 a.m. on Wednesday.

Just 11 minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, wearing a distinctive backpack.

At 6:44 a.m., he shot Thompson at a side entrance to the hotel, fled on foot, then climbed aboard a bicycle and within four minutes had entered Central Park.

Another security camera recorded the gunman leaving the park near the American Museum of Natural History at 6:56 a.m. still on the bicycle but without the backpack.

After getting in a taxi, he headed north to a bus terminal near the George Washington Bridge, arriving at around 7:30 a.m.

From there, the trail of video evidence runs cold. Police have not located video of the suspect exiting the building, leading them to believe he likely took a bus out of town. Police said they are still investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania.

“This just happened this morning,” Kenny said. “We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said.

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File # GE222010001

Details:

On Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at 10:40 A.M. Task Force Officers with the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force (CVVCGTF) conducted a traffic stop in the area of Jackson Street and Kenner Avenue in Indio. During the traffic stop Gang Task Force Officers contacted convicted felon and documented criminal street gang member, Rafael Gerardo Jr., 39 of Indio. Gang Task Force Officers determined Gerardo Jr. was on active California State Parole and proceeded to conduct a parole compliance search of Gerardo Jr. and his vehicle. During the search Gang Task Force Officers located a non-serialized 9mm semi-auto handgun or what is commonly referred to as a “Ghost Gun.” Additionally, they located approximately 4 ounces of suspected methamphetamine, 97 Fentanyl pills, and ammunition. Gerardo Jr. will be charged with Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition, Possession of a Firearm with Narcotics, Gang Member in Possession of Firearm, Possession of Non-Serialized Firearm (Ghost Gun) and Violation of Parole. Gerardo Jr. was subsequently booked at John Benoit Detention Center in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe and secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity. If you have any information about this crime, please contact CVVCGTF member Deputy Chavez at (760) 836-1600. If you have non-emergency information regarding gang activity, please use our online Gang Task Force Tip Form or call 951-922-7601.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s district attorney said Wednesday he is suing three California companies that make and distribute “ghost guns,” the untraceable, build-it-yourself weaponry that accounted for nearly half the firearms recovered in gun killings in the city last year.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced the lawsuit at a news conference, alongside advocates of tougher gun laws.

The suit names Blackhawk Manufacturing Group, GS Performance and MDX Corp., three companies that are not based in San Francisco but are responsible for producing a large share of the firearms found in the city and elsewhere in the state, Boudin said.

“Guns are flooding our streets. Enough is enough,” Boudin said. “It is not enough to wait until after someone has been shot and killed by a firearm. We must get to the root of the problem.”

Boudin’s lawsuit comes amid mounting criticism over his response to rising crime rates and a wave of anti-Asian violence in the city, which has been routinely video-recorded and spread virally. Critics say the city’s most powerful law enforcement officer is intolerably lenient, particularly toward those responsible for rampant theft, drug abuse and street crimes.

Critics say Boudin, a progressive who ran on police reform, has repeatedly declined to file charges in cases where the perpetrators went on to commit more serious crimes. Supporters praise him for following through on his criminal justice reform promises.

Like the pandemic, the furor shows no sign of abating. One attempt to recall Boudin fell short last week when organizers failed to collect enough signatures, but the other attempt lives on with a deadline for signatures in October. If voters ultimately oust Boudin, Mayor London Breed, whose politics are more moderate, will choose a replacement.

The lawsuit, filed jointly with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, alleges that the companies violated state laws that require them to apply for serial numbers and that they misled consumers into believing the weapons were legal. It seeks a court order that would bar the companies from shipping their products in California and also seeks monetary penalties.

Messages left with all three companies seeking comment were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Police in San Francisco and other cities across the country have seen an explosion in the numbers of ghost guns seized over the past year.

In San Francisco, police seized 164 ghost guns in 2020, a 2,600% increase from the six confiscated in 2016.

In 2020, California accounted for 65% of all ghost guns seized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a statement from Boudin’s office said.

Earlier this month, two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies badly wounded in an ambush shooting last year sued a Nevada company, Polymer80 Inc., for making the parts for a ghost gun used in the attack.

The companies named in the San Francisco lawsuit tout on their websites how little time it takes to build their guns and that no background checks are needed, said Hannah Shearer, litigation director at Giffords Law Center, which is co-counsel in the case.

“They’ve made it possible for anyone in the state to buy all the parts needed to build a firearm, no questions asked and get it shipped in a convenient package with instructions, like an Ikea piece of furniture,” said Shearer.

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On Sunday, April 11, 2021, about 6:00 PM, members of the Jurupa Valley Patrol Station Special Enforcement Team (SET) conducted a traffic enforcement stop on a vehicle in the area of Magnolia and McKinley in the unincorporated area of Home Gardens. While speaking with the driver, who was later identified as 24-year-old Samuel Orajel, a resident of Home Gardens, SET deputies learned Orajel had a warrant for his arrest. As they began to remove Orajel from his vehicle, SET Deputies discovered Orajel was sitting on a loaded firearm. Orajel was immediately placed under arrest without incident.

While inspecting the firearm, SET deputies determined the firearm did not contain a serial number which was determined to be a 9mm “Ghost Gun.” Additionally, the firearm was completely loaded with an illegal high capacity magazine. A second illegal high capacity magazine was also recovered within the vehicle. During the course of the investigation, Deputies learned this is Orajel’s 2nd firearm arrest within the last two months, for which he was currently out on bail. Orajel was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center for possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of a high capacity ammunition magazine, and committing a felony while on bail.

Anyone with additional information regarding this arrest is encouraged to contact Deputy Savage or Deputy Bejarano from the Jurupa Valley Special Enforcement Team (951) 955-2600.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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