A McDonald’s customer thought his friend was joking when he pointed out alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione at the fast food joint on Monday — but it ultimately turned out to be the shooting suspect, he said.
The man, identified only as Larry by Fox News, and a group of pals went for their meal at the McDonalds in Altoona, Penn., on Monday when one of them noticed a man in the restaurant who looked suspiciously familiar to the gunman who executed executive Brian Thompson in New York City last week.
“One of my friends — and I thought he was kidding — when the shooter … who they made the arrest on came in, he made a comment ‘Well, that looks like the shooter from New York.’ But the group of us thought it was more of a joke and we were kidding about it,” he told the outlet.
Larry his friend recognized the jacket and backpack from photos released by the New York City Police Department over the frantic five-day manhunt for the killer.
“But then, as it turned out, it was him,” Larry said.
While Larry didn’t get a particularly good look at him, he recalled the suspected murderer ordering his food and sitting in the back of the restaurant.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down Wednesday outside a luxury Midtown hotel in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had been getting threats before he was killed.
- Thompson’s shooting led to sick support online, and even spurred a tasteless lookalike competition in NYC.
- A person of interest has been nabbed by police officers inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.
- The suspect has been identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, originally from Towson, Md. He’s a former Ivy League student who hated the medical community.
Follow along with The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding Brian Thompson’s murder.
“I passed him whenever I left, I left and went to church, [then] came back because I heard there was an arrest,” Larry added.
He said Mangione was probably close enough to hear them joking about him looking like the shooter, but “There was no reaction from him whenever my friend said that.”
