Luigi Mangione is seen inside the police station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Dec. 9, 2024/Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The ghost gun allegedly in Luigi Mangione’s possession when he was arrested in Pennsylvania has been matched to three shell casings recovered at the scene of Brian Thompson’s murder in New York City, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday.
Fingerprints recovered from a water bottle and a Kind bar near the crime scene have also been matched to Mangione, she said.
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, is accused of gunning down Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4.
Written on the shell casings were the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” according to police sources.
Mangione was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday after nearly one week on the run.
Mangione allegedly had a spiral notebook detailing plans about how to eventually kill the CEO, according to law enforcement officials.
One passage allegedly said, “What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” the officials said.
The writings said using explosives in the attack could “risk innocents,” according to the officials.
Detectives are still examining Mangione’s writings but are considering the contents of the notebook to represent a confession, sources said.
Investigators have started interviewing members of Mangione’s family, according to sources.
A judge in Pennsylvania ordered Mangione held without bail on Tuesday. In Pennsylvania he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun.
Mangione plans to challenge his extradition to New York, where he faces charges including second-degree murder.
“He has constitutional rights and that’s what he’s doing” in challenging the interstate transfer, defense attorney Thomas Dickey told reporters on Tuesday.
Mangione is “taking it as well as he can,” Dickey added.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it will seek a governor’s warrant to try to force Mangione’s extradition. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she’ll sign a request for the governor’s warrant “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable.”
Mangione’s attorney told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that anyone speculating on the case should take the potential evidence “in its entirety,” not taking pieces of writing or other evidence “out of context.”
“People put out certain things, parts of different things,” he said. “I think any lawyer involved in this situation would want to see it all.”
Mangione plans to plead not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania, Dickey said. Dickey said he anticipates Mangione would also plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in New York.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Mark Crudele, Luke Barr, Peter Charalambous and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
One person was killed and six firefighters were injured after a fire broke out at an apartment building in New York City on Monday. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — One person was killed and six firefighters were injured after a multi-alarm fire broke out in an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Monday.
The fire started around 7:15 p.m. at a six-story residential building located between York and East End avenues on 82nd Street, according to a statement from fire officials.
When FDNY crews arrived to the scene, they reported heavy fire on the fifth and sixth floors.
The flames eventually extended down to the fourth floor, as well, officials said.
Crews stretched multiple hose lines and had to pull apart walls to fight the flames, according to a spokesperson for the FDNY.
The fire was elevated to three alarms around 7:40 p.m.
About 138 FDNY and EMS personnel responded to the blaze, representing 33 emergency response units, officials said.
FDNY officials say one civilian was killed, while six firefighters suffered minor injuries.
“You know, the art and skill of a firefighter is inherently dangerous,” a spokesperson for the FDNY said on Monday night. “It’s a cold night, we have a lot of water going on, we have ventilation — windows breaking, we have a lot of fire and smoke. So, thank God, all the [injuries] seem to be minor at this time.”
The civilian, who has not yet been identified, was found in the hallway of the fifth floor, the spokesperson said.
The fourth, fifth and sixth floors all suffered heavy damage from smoke and fire, and other parts of the building were damaged from the water.
Multiple apartments were impacted.
The FDNY said that an MTA bus was going to shelter some of the victims whose homes were affected until they could be “properly relocated.”
Fire marshals will continue to investigate the cause of the fire.
Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images, Pool
(SANTA ANA, Calif.) — Samuel Woodward, a California man found guilty of murdering his former classmate in 2018 in a hate crime, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday.
Blaze Bernstein — a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania — went missing while visiting his family in Newport Beach during winter break in January 2018. His body was found, following a dayslong search, buried in a park in Lake Forest he went to with Woodward the night he went missing, authorities said. He had been stabbed 28 times, prosecutors said.
Woodward, now 27, was charged with first-degree murder as a hate crime. Prosecutors had argued that Woodward murdered his high school classmate because Bernstein was gay.
In issuing the sentence during a lengthy hearing on Friday, Judge Kimberly Menninger said there was evidence that the defendant planned the murder, and that the jury found it true that the crime was committed because of Bernstein’s sexual orientation.
Menninger also denied Woodward probation.
On whether the defendant is remorseful, Menninger said, “Unfortunately for the court and for the defendant, I’ve never seen any evidence of this up to this point in time.”
Woodward was not present at his sentencing hearing due to an illness, according to Menninger.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
