New forensic evidence links suspect Luigi Mangione to CEO's killing : Police

New York [US], December 12 : The investigation into the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has taken a significant turn. According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the 3D-printed gun that suspect Luigi Mangione had when he was arrested in Pennsylvania matches three shell casings found at the crime scene, CNN reported.
The New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Wednesday said Mangione's fingerprints also match those investigators found on items near the scene of the December 4 assassination in Midtown Manhattan, as authorities continue to investigate the motive for the killing.
The suspect Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania earlier this week.
Three 9 mm shell casings from the crime scene had the words "delay," "deny" and "depose" written across them, one word per bullet, NYPD's Chief Detective Joseph Kenny has said.
These words are also the title of a 2010 book that criticizes the insurance industry. Police are investigating whether these words may point to a motive in CEO Brian Thompson's killing, as per CNN.
"First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania. It's now at the NYPD crime lab," Tisch, the commissioner, said Wednesday. "We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide."
"We're also at the crime lab able to match the person of interest's fingerprints with fingerprints that we found on both the water bottle and the KIND bar near the scene of the homicide in midtown," she said.
According to CNN, authorities have found a positive forensic match tying Mangione directly to the crime scene. The match was made from DNA material and a partial fingerprint found on a discarded Starbucks water bottle and an energy bar wrapper. Surveillance images show Mangione buying these items about 30 minutes before the shooting.
According to two law enforcement officials, the fingerprints were the first positive forensic match tying Mangione directly to the scene where Thompson was gunned down just over a week ago outside a hotel.
Mangione is fighting his extradition to New York. The 26-year-old accused appeared at an extradition hearing at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania after New York prosecutors charged him with murder, among other counts.
Mangione, who was denied bail in a Pennsylvania court on Wednesday, yelled at the media, "It's completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It's lived experience!" as per CNN.
New York prosecutors charged Mangione, who was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday, with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, as per CNN.
Court documents show that Mangione was found with "a black 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer", according to the complaint.
Detective Yousef Demes of the Midtown North Detective Squad showed evidence that proves Mangione is the person depicted in surveillance video fatally shooting Thompson outside of a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, CNN reported.