NEW YORK – Hundreds of tips were provided to the New York City Police Department Crime Stoppers tip line during the five-day search for 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, the masked shooter who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
But a 911 call from a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday helped police focus in on the suspect.
The Associated Press reported that up to $60,000 in rewards from the FBI and the Crime Stoppers program had been offered to anyone calling in a tip leading to a break in the case.
Mangione Manhunt: From Midtown to Altoona | Streaming tonight
“Mangione Manhunt: From Midtown to Altoona,” a FOX 5 documentary on the UnitedHealthcare CEO killing, premieres tonight, only on FOX LOCAL.
But rewards could take more time to be released and could be less than the full amount after taxes and consideration of the role the tips played in the case.
Officials tell the AP that who will receive the reward or a portion of one is still being figured out.
Federal and local rewards programs operate with different rules, but both have wiggle room built in to offer multiple rewards of various amounts based on the result of those tips.
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How does someone become eligible for a reward?
According to the AP, the FBI reward program, which offered a reward of up to $50,000 in this case, requires that a tip or information led to an arrest and conviction.
For the NYPD Crime Stoppers award, the tip line typically offers up to $3,500 for information leading to an arrest and indictment. The AP reported that the Detective Bureau raised that amount to $10,000 in this case, and for its portion a conviction is required.
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The McDonald’s employee called 911, which records a number and usually a name. A tipster calling the Crime Stoppers line remains anonymous.
When will the reward money be given?
Most rewards require a conviction and based on the murder charges against Luigi Mangione and the multiple areas involved, the AP noted that it might be a year or more before a trial happens.
The Altoona, P.A., McDonald’s where police found Luigi Mangione
For the $3,500 from Crime Stoppers, the board may decide to issue reward money after the indictment is complete. Both the FBI and Crime Stoppers have boards that review the tips, speak to detectives or authorities involved in the investigation, and determine which tips were important in the case.
The Crime Stoppers board has the latitude to split a reward between tips or to consider each for the maximum amount on a case-by-case basis.
How has the reward money been granted in the past?
According to the AP, the police foundation and the FBI don’t discuss individual cases or reveal how much money individual tipsters were awarded.
Programs like the Rewards for Justice program, the FBI tells the AP that it has awarded millions of dollars over the last two decades.
For that program, the FBI sometimes announces the amount of the reward but does not identify the tipsters. Most often, the agency provides a confidential report to Congress detailing the tips and the rewards.
The same principles apply to Crime Stoppers The program doesn’t release details to protect the anonymity promised to tipsters.
