After a nearly weeklong manhunt, suspect Luigi Mangione was discovered more than

200 miles away in Altoona after allegedly fleeing New York on a bus from the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.

National news crews flocked to the area after word spread that a suspect in the killing had been arrested, prompting a flood of scrutiny on the city and county.

According to Google Trends, Dec. 9 was the most-searched day for Altoona since the tech company began collecting search-tracking data in 2004.

Luigi Mangione was arrested by Altoona Police Department officers at McDonald’s, 407 E. Plank Road, Altoona, on Monday. Social media reaction to the arrest was mixed, with some siding with Mangione’s dissatisfaction with the health care industry. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

This traffic was primarily driven by searchers from Pennsylvania and Iowa — Thompson was born in Ames, Iowa, and graduated from nearby South Hamilton High School in Jewell Junction.

Blair County’s unexpected prominence online led to a surge of negative reviews for the McDonald’s restaurant where Mangione was arrested.

Comments ranged from a Kansas resident who wrote “They should fire their staff” on the location’s Yelp page, to a reviewer from Iowa who claimed to have eaten at the local McDonald’s in the past.

A commenter from South Carolina said they “(n)arced on Superman. No secrets safe here. Negative stars weren’t possible but man Lex Luther would love this place. Full of snitches.”

Social media was filled with sympathy and people voicing their support for Mangione once news of his arrest broke.

It also seemed as if many people were discovering Altoona for the first time, posting pictures of Altoona-style pizza on X, formerly known as Twitter, with one user writing a caption saying “the only real crime in Altoona is the pizza.”

In the cold rain on Monday evening, one local health care worker stood in front of the establishment, holding a handmade sign that read “Corrupt healthcare CEOs have got to go.”

According to the woman, several local residents visited the McDonald’s while she was there and expressed similar sentiments of dissatisfaction with the state of the American health care industry.

“I feel that a lot of people are upset, I don’t feel that it’s a very positive media coverage that’s happening (of Mangione’s arrest),” she said. “I feel like on social media, a lot of people have a similar view that there is change that is needed in our current American health insurance.”

Several broadcast news crews visited the McDonald’s throughout the afternoon to interview the small crowd of local residents who showed up to voice their displeasure with Mangione’s arrest, she said.

Reactions were not only ones of sympathy and displeasure. There were also people condemning the apologists, with one X user writing “selective enforcement of the law is wrong.” A commenter on Facebook also praised the Altoona police, writing “much thanks to our dedicated and great Police Department for apprehending him with no major incident.”

Employees at the Plank Road Sheetz, right across from McDonald’s, fielded calls all day from news organizations across the country, including The Wall Street Journal, TMZ, Fox, ABC and NBC.

Employees said they didn’t notice anything unusual until they received a visit from police, who asked to see video surveillance footage. Nothing of interest was found on the video, the employees said.

One news organization who grilled an employee over the phone appeared to get a little testy when the employee said they didn’t see anything.

“We were working,” the employee said.

They gave up keeping track of how many calls and from what news organizations, employees said.

When the Associated Press hosted a live stream of the press conference in the county government offices in Hollidaysburg with Gov. Josh Shapiro and representatives from the New York Police Department, more than 50,000 people tuned in to watch.

That is more than seven times the capacity of a sold-out Curve game at Peoples Natural Gas Field, which is often the largest event in town throughout the summer months.

According to Blair County Commissioner Amy Webster, there is a small silver lining to Altoona’s spell on the national stage.

Since Altoona law enforcement were able to act “swiftly” to apprehend Mangione after he was identified, it tells people that “our police arrest criminals, and that this is a safe place to be,” Webster said.

“Our (police officers) are well-trained,” Webster said, “and when you call, they’re right there.”

Webster echoed Shapiro’s comments earlier in the evening, where he commended local law enforcement and their prompt collaboration with state and federal law enforcement.

“Our citizens should be proud of our police and feel safe (in Blair County),” Webster said.

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.