Luigi Mangione, 26, arrested Monday after five days of tracking, is being prosecuted for the murder of the boss of a health insurance giant, New York State justice announced. He is also being prosecuted for illegal possession of weapons and false documents.
On Monday, Jessica Tisch, the head of the New York police, announced the arrest of this individual by “members of the Altoona police”, 500 km west of New York, “for possession of firearms.”
Several photos captured by video surveillance cameras before and after the “targeted and wanton killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare” had been released, and the suspect was recognized by an employee of a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona who contacted local police, she added.
American media images showed the young man, with curly black hair, leaving a police vehicle handcuffed to be escorted to a Pennsylvania state court.
A judge kept him in custody pending his transfer to the New York courts for his possible indictment for the murder of Brian Thompson.
Presented as a native of Maryland (northeast), whose last known address is in Honolulu, Hawaii, he obtained a master’s degree in engineering sciences from the prestigious private University of Pennsylvania (U Penn) in 2020, after having gone to a posh high school in Baltimore. According to the Baltimore Banner, he comes from a wealthy Italian-American family, with a grandfather, who died in 2008, a real estate developer and owner of country clubs, retirement homes and a local radio station.
On him, the police found a kit firearm, “which could have been made by a 3D printer”, and a silencer, similar to those used by the killer. Luigi Mangione also carried a fake New Jersey ID card “matching the identity used to check into a New York hotel” before the attack, as well as a three-page handwritten document describing his “hostility to against American companies,” police said.
Video“A premeditated attack”: the CEO of an insurance giant shot dead in the street in Manhattan
The motive for the crime not yet elucidated
According to American media, the words “delay” and “deny” (refusal), terms referring to rejections of health care claims by insurance companies, were written on the shell casings found at the crime scene .
Investigators are also questioning a medical X-ray photo displayed on the suspect’s profile on the social network X, which was suspended Monday after his arrest.
The death of Brian Thompson, in this premeditated assassination in the middle of the street, caused a strong stir in the United States but it was also accompanied by hateful comments on social networks against American health insurance programs, illustrating a deep anger towards a lucrative system accused of enriching itself at the expense of patients.
“You don’t kill people in cold blood for political reasons or to express a point of view,” condemned Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro on Monday. “This killer is hailed as a hero. Listen to me carefully, he’s not a hero,” he insisted.
Last week, at dawn on Wednesday, the killer approached Brian Thompson, 50, and coldly shot him in the street in front of a hotel in Manhattan, a scene captured by a video surveillance camera and seen by million people.
Police considered the possibility that the shooter used a long-barreled veterinary pistol, normally used to euthanize animals, fitted with a silencer to commit the murder.
Brian Thompson was scheduled to attend an investors conference that day. UnitedHealth Group insures 51 million people and works with government programs such as Medicare, the senior health insurance system.
