BREAKING: Police Apprehend Suspect in Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO
At midday on Monday, December 9, New York City law enforcement authorities and Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference at which they announced that they had apprehended a man in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on Wednesday, Dec. 4. For the moment, he has been arrested on gun charges.
As CNNs Elise Hammond reported, the person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, identified as Luigi Mangione, was “sitting there eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., on Monday morning [at about 9:15 AM], when an employee of that restaurant called the police,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told the assembled press. “Luckily, a citizen in Pennsylvania recognized our subject and called local law enforcement,” he said. Kenny said that “at this point in our investigation, we don’t think he was trying to flee the country.”
CNN’s John Miller reported on Monday afternoon that, “Among the lines in the two-page document found on “strong person of interest” Luigi Mangione are the following two quotes: “These parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” a police official who has seen the document told CNN. In the note, Mangione says he acted alone and that he was self-funded. The document railed against the health care industry and suggested violence is the answer, according to the official.”
And, the New York Daily News’s Rocco Parascandaloa, Graham Rayman, Chris Sommerfelt, Thomas Tracy, and Ellen Moynihan, on Monday afternoon quoted NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny as stating during the progress conference that Mangione, based on his writings, has “ill will toward corporate America.” Kenny told the press that, “Included on an online list of books Mangione read this year is Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski’s Industrial Society and its Future, which he rated four out of five stars.”
Mr. Mangione was carrying a gun, a silencer and other false identification cards similar to those they believe the killer used in New York, according to one of the law enforcement officials and a person briefed on the investigation. Mr. Mangione showed the police the same fake New Jersey identification that the man believed to be the gunman presented when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Nov. 24, a senior law enforcement official said.
Meanwhile, the New York Times’s Andy Newman, Chelsia Rose Marcius, William K. Rashbaum, Maria Cramer, and Michael Wilson, reported on Monday afternoon that “The gun appears to be a so-called ghost gun, assembled from parts that may have been made from a 3-D printer, Chief Kenny said. Mr. Mangione was also carrying a handwritten manifesto that criticized health care companies for putting profits above care, according to two law enforcement officials. He was born and raised in Maryland, and has lived in San Francisco and Honolulu, the police said.”
Further, the New York Times reporters wrote, “On social media, a man named Luigi Mangione posted pictures of his travels with friends and family. A person with the same name attended a private high school in the Baltimore area, where he wrestled and became valedictorian, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 with degrees in engineering, according to a school commencement program. Mr. Mangione is in custody on local charges, the official said, possibly related to presenting the fake identification to the police. He has not been arrested or charged in connection with the killing. New York police investigators are traveling to Altoona, in western Pennsylvania, about 280 miles from the city, according to one of the law enforcement officials.”
They added that “The police had been looking for the gunman since Wednesday morning’s attack on Brian Thompson, 50, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, outside a hotel in Midtown. They believe the killer left New York by bus shortly after. The person now in custody arrived in Altoona on a Greyhound bus, a senior law enforcement official said. Mr. Thompson’s killer is also believed to have taken a Greyhound when he arrived in New York City 10 days before the shooting.”
On Dec. 5, NBC News’s Minyvonne Burke, David K. Li and Marlene Lenthang reported that “Thompson did not travel with any personal security detail despite known threats against him. His wife, Paulette Thompson, said he had been receiving threats.” Paulette Thompson told the reporters that “There had been some threats. Basically, I don’t know, a lack of [health insurance coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
The murder of Thompson took place last week amid a rising tide of anti-managed care sentiment among the public. On Dec. 7, ABC News’s Desire Adib and Ivan Pereira reported that “Fury, anger and resentment toward the health care industry have exploded in the public rhetoric in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killing and one activist said that "volcanic" eruption of emotion has been boiling up for years. People have been flooding social media posts with statements chastising UHC for its policies, bringing up times they were personally denied coverage or hit with huge bills for services. In some instances, some users have even praised Thompson's murder and the shooter, who is still on the lam and not been publicly identified as of Friday evening. UHC's Facebook post memorializing Thompson was filled with "laughing" emojis and comments chastising the insurer before comments were shut off.”
This is a developing story; it will be updated as additional news developments warrant.
