Minnesota Man Arrested After Bizarre Attempt to Free Luigi Mangione from Brooklyn Jail
A 36-year-old man from Minnesota was arrested Wednesday evening after allegedly attempting to free high-profile defendant Luigi Mangione from federal custody in Brooklyn by impersonating an FBI agent.
The incident unfolded at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where Mangione is being held without bail as he faces separate federal and state murder charges in connection with the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Federal authorities identified the suspect as Mark Anderson, a resident of Mankato, Minnesota. Anderson allegedly entered the intake area of the MDC Brooklyn facility claiming to be an FBI agent and asserting he had a “court order signed by a judge” authorizing the release of a specific inmate.
When Bureau of Prisons personnel requested to see his official credentials, Anderson reportedly produced only a Minnesota driver’s license and began handing over various documents that had no legal validity. According to a criminal complaint, Anderson then told officials he had weapons in his bag. On searching the backpack, guards found only a barbecue fork and a blade resembling a pizza cutter, not firearms or other conventional weapons.
Corrections officers promptly detained Anderson and charged him with impersonating a federal officer, a federal crime that can carry significant prison time if convicted. He was expected to make his initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday.
Although the criminal complaint did not name the specific inmate Anderson intended to free, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News that the intended subject was Luigi Mangione. Mangione, 27, was arrested in December 2024 and charged in the fatal shooting of Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk during a corporate event. He has pleaded not guilty to both federal and state charges.
In court filings and pretrial hearings, prosecutors have emphasized premeditation in the killing, including evidence recovered from Mangione’s arrest such as a 9 mm handgun and a journal that authorities said contained writings about targeting the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
The defense has challenged aspects of evidence and is fighting against the possibility of prosecutors seeking the death penalty in federal court. Jury selection in the federal case is scheduled for September, while New York state prosecutors are pushing to begin the state trial as early as July. The attempted jailbreak occurred during a critical phase of these proceedings, with Mangione due in court for a pre-trial conference in the coming days.
Little is officially known about why Anderson traveled from Minnesota to New York or what motivated his actions, and law enforcement has not publicly detailed a motive beyond the criminal complaint. A law enforcement source told Business Insider that Anderson had recently moved to New York following a failed job opportunity and was working at a pizzeria at the time of the incident.
