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A Minnesota man is accused of walking into a Brooklyn federal jail Wednesday night claiming to be an FBI agent with a judge’s order to spring Luigi Mangione — the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
But Mark Anderson, 28, was exposed when he flashed a driver’s license instead of federal credentials and was found carrying a barbecue fork and what appeared to be a round pizza cutter, according to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday.
Authorities at the Metropolitan Detention Center arrested Anderson after his bizarre impersonation attempt at 6:50 p.m., according to the federal criminal complaint. He’s charged with impersonating a federal officer.
The incident unfolded at the detention center’s intake area, where Anderson allegedly approached Bureau of Prisons officers, insisting he had court-ordered paperwork to release a Mangione.
When pressed for his FBI credentials, Anderson produced his Minnesota driver’s license, authorities said. He then announced he was armed and began hurling documents at the stunned officers — papers that turned out to be grievances against the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the federal complaint.
A search of Anderson’s backpack revealed his “weapons”: a large barbecue fork and a circular steel blade resembling a pizza cutter, the court papers allege.
It’s unclear how Anderson, who is from Mankato, located about a 90-minute drive south of Minneapolis, traveled to Brooklyn.
The Mangione case
Mangione, 26, has become one of the most high-profile defendants in recent memory after allegedly executing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen daylight shooting outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down as he arrived for an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown in what prosecutors say was a calculated assassination. Shell casings found at the scene bore the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” — terms associated with insurance industry tactics.
The killing sparked a massive five-day manhunt across multiple states before Mangione was ultimately captured Dec. 9 inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
A customer recognized him from widely circulated surveillance photos. When police arrested him, they found a ghost gun with a suppressor, fake IDs and a handwritten manifesto railing against the health insurance industry.
Mangione faces federal and state murder charges, including the rare charge of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Top: Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan state court in New York last year (AP Photo/Seth Wenig), and evidence presented in the federal court complain against Minnesotan Mark Anderson.
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