Luigi Mangione's mother spoke to police the day before the suspected killer was arrested, and investigators say the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “something she could have witnessed her doing.'' “Maybe,” he said.
Last month, Mangione's mother filed a missing person report with San Francisco police, saying she had not had contact with him since July.
Investigators in California believed they recognized Mangione after the NYPD released an image of the suspect in Thompson's murder, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said.
Investigators then called Mangione's mother and asked if she thought the suspect police were pursuing might be Mangione's son, Kenney said.
United Healthcare CEO Luigi Mangione charged with murder in New York
Police contacted Luigi Mangione's mother the day before he was arrested in Pennsylvania. (Fox News)
“They had a conversation and she did not indicate that it was her son in the photo, but she may have seen him doing something,” Kenney said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. I said I couldn't do it,” he said.
Kenney said the phone conversation took place “very late” on Dec. 7. Mangione, an Ivy League-educated computer programmer, was arrested on December 9 at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione is being held in Pennsylvania as authorities work to extradite him to New York.
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Luigi Mangione's mother told police that she “may have witnessed his actions” in Brian Thompson's murder. (Fox News)
Mr. Mangione was indicted by a New York grand jury on Tuesday.
Mangione is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, seven counts of possession of a weapon of varying degrees and possession of a forged instrument, all felonies.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called it a “brazen, targeted, premeditated shooting.”
Mangione is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
Luigi Mangione (left) was charged with first-degree murder in the December 4 execution of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York. (David Dee Delagado for Fox News Digital | Businesswire)
Officials told Fox News that Mangione will not fight extradition at a hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday. If that's the case, he could return to New York the same day.
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Mangione, 26, is accused of sneaking up on the victim, a Minnesota resident, outside a Manhattan hotel in the early morning hours of December 4th as she was on her way to a shareholder meeting.
He then allegedly shot and killed Thompson in an assassination-style ambush that was caught on surveillance video.
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
