Luigi Mangione’s mother said she could see him killing UnitedHealthcare CEO: police

When detectives contacted the mother of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione after the first photos of the suspect emerged, she said she wasn’t sure he was the one — but told investigators that the shooting “could be something she could see him doing,” a New York Police Department official said Tuesday.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney revealed the mother’s alleged comment at a news conference announcing Mangione’s indictment in the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione, who was captured at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Dec. 9, has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. His office is working to get Mangione from a Pennsylvania jail to a New York courtroom.

Mangione was already charged with murder. But Bragg said Thompson’s early-morning killing outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel was “a murder that was intended to instill terror. And we’ve seen that response.”

At the news conference, Kenney was asked about some of the tips police received and the steps officers took to catch them.

He said Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, reported her son missing in San Francisco on Nov. 18.

Then New York police officers on the FBI task force received a tip that Mangione, a missing person in San Francisco, might be their suspect and called his mother.

According to the NYPD’s Kenney, a San Francisco police sergeant working on a missing person case saw Mangione’s photo and contacted the FBI’s San Francisco field office “and said hey, basically, ‘I’m working on a missing person case. I saw the photo the NYPD distributed, there’s a similarity.’ That tip was sent to us 45 hours after the incident.”

“It was one of four pieces of information they received that day, and they were looking into it,” Kenny told reporters. “They had a conversation in which she did not indicate that it was her son in the picture, but she said it could be something she could see him doing.”

The information was supposed to be sent to New York detectives assigned to look into the case the next morning, Kenny said. “But luckily, we caught it before they could act on it.” Mangione’s mother could not immediately be reached for comment on Kenny’s statement.

Luigi’s cousin and Maryland state representative Nino Mangione, who issued an initial joint statement for the family, did not respond to a message sent to him at a number listed. USA TODAY has also contacted Mangione’s New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Hours after Mangione’s arrest, his family released a statement saying they were “shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest” and “Our prayers go out to Brian Thompson’s family and we ask that everyone pray for them.”

Mangione is currently in custody in a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied bail on Tuesday. In Pennsylvania, he is charged with allegedly possessing a “ghost gun.” In New York, he was initially charged with multiple counts, including second-degree murder. This article was updated with a new video.