Cops are still “vetting” the hundreds of tips they received in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — as it remains unclear whether suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s family recognized him while he was on the run.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry was pressed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday about whether Mangione’s relatives — part of a prominent Baltimore, Md., clan — had contacted authorities to identify him.
“We’re still vetting each one of those tips. But thank God for the customer that was in the McDonalds,” Daughtry said, referring to the tipster who called the cops after Mangione was spotted chomping on hashbrowns at a fast food joint in Altoona, Pennsylvania Monday.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell added: “Post-arrest investigation here, I think all these things will be asked and answered in time.”
“When the picture went out, the thought process from everyone was, like, if someone knows this person, you say, ‘Hey, that’s John.’ That’ll all come out,” he added.
Cops last week released photos of the suspect with his mask down as he chatted up a receptionist at an Upper West Side hostel where he stayed before the slaying.
Authorities had offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the suspected assassin, who cops say checked into the hostel using a fake ID before staking out the Midtown hotel outside of which Thompson was shot dead Dec. 4.
A police official said Wednesday that NYPD Crime Stoppers received over 400 tips during the investigation — 30 or so of which were helpful.
Law-enforcement sources said there was no indication that the Mangione family had tried to obstruct the investigation in any way.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media by Nino Mangione, a Republican Maryland state legislator. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Mangione’s family seems to have known something was amiss in the weeks before the shooting.
His mom reported him missing to San Francisco police on November 18, though the circumstances of the report, or whether the family made contact after it was filed, remain unclear.
Mangione, 26, hails from a huge clan descended from patriarch Nick Mangione Sr., the son of a poor Italian immigrant who built a multi-million-dollar business empire that includes nursing homes, country clubs, resorts, and a radio station.
The family wealth landed Mangione in an expensive private high school, from which he attended the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.
When police found Mangione at the McDonalds, he had been carrying four fake IDs, a 3D-printed gun with a homemade silencer, and a hand-written manifesto, authorities said.
Mangione’s fingerprints also match those found on a snack bar and water bottle near the crime scene, sources said.
He is being held in a Pennsylvania prison as he fights extradition to New York, where he faces charges including murder in the second degree.
