A Minnesota man was arrested Wednesday night for impersonating an FBI agent in a failed attempt to free Luigi Mangione from a New York City federal prison, according to a new criminal complaint.
The suspect, identified as 36-year-old Mark Anderson, allegedly claimed to have an order “signed by a judge” to release Mangione, charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. When asked for his credentials, the man showed his Minnesota driver’s license and said he had weapons in his bag.
Bureau of Prisons officers found a barbecue fork and a “circular steel blade resembling a pizza cutter,” the Thursday court filing states.
Anderson then threw documents at the officers before he was promptly arrested. An FBI agent who wrote the criminal complaint said the documents “appear to be related to filing of claims against the United States Department of Justice.”
His arrest came hours after Manhattan prosecutors asked a New York state court to set Mangione’s murder trial for July 1, two months in advance of the jury selection date for the federal trial. The 27-year-old criminal defendant has pleaded not guilty in both court cases.
The Department of Justice is seeking the death penalty for Mangione if he is convicted in the federal case. A judge has yet to decide on a possible death sentence.
Mangione is being held at the Brooklyn detention facility without bail on charges of murdering Thompson in December 2024. The UnitedHealthcare CEO was in Manhattan for an investors’ event when he was fatally shot.
Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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Meanwhile, Anderson made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon. He is being charged with impersonating an FBI agent.
The court filing did not name Mangione as the inmate that Anderson tried to free, but law enforcement reportedly confirmed it was the accused murderer.