Police Make Arrest in Thompson Shooting

Person of interest, 26-year-old Luigi Mangioni, arrested in Altoona, PA

Multiple news agencies are reporting that a 26-year-old man named Luigi Mangioni has been arrested in Altoona, PA, though, as of this writing, he appears to remain a person of interest and has not been formally charged. According to NBC News Philadelphia:

On Monday, Dec. 9, sources with NBC News confirmed the man -- who they identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione -- was being questioned in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The sources said customers at a McDonald’s in the area called police after spotting Mangione, who they deemed suspicious. Responding officers noticed he had a fake ID and took him in for questioning.

Once at the police station, officers discovered Mangione had a gun similar to the one used in Thompson's killing, as well as a silencer and a fake New Jersey ID with the name "Marc Rosario" on it, law enforcement officials told NBC News.

Sources had said the gunman in the shooting used a fake New Jersey ID with the same name "Marc Rosario" when he checked into a Manhattan hostel last month.

Mangione was arrested on unrelated firearm charges, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced during a Monday afternoon press conference. He has not been arrested or charged in connection to Thompson's death.

Mangione reportedly graduated in 2016 as valedictorian from Gilman School, an all-boys high school in Baltimore, Maryland.

The 26-year-old was born and raised in Maryland, apparently has ties to San Francisco, and a last known address in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Judging by the information being reported about Mangione, he does indeed appear to be the young man who checked into the Upper West Side hostel and was photographed getting into a taxi on the Upper West Side (wearing a medical mask). It strikes me as very strange that he kept so many incriminating objects in his possession, as he must have known that he was the subject of a massive manhunt.

As I have noted in my previous posts on this story, I wonder if the young man photographed at the youth hostel reception is the same man who was photographed in the Midtown Starbucks shortly before Thompson’s killing.

As I wrote in my post last night, “If the man photographed at the reception of the youth hostel is caught, it would not surprise me if his DNA does not match the DNA that was possibly secured from a bottle of water purchased and apparently drunk by the alleged assassin photographed in the Midtown Starbucks.”