A suspect was arrested Monday in the northeast of the United States in the investigation into the assassination in the middle of the street last Wednesday in New York of the boss of an American health insurance giant, announced the police and the New York City Hall.
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“Members of the Altoona police,” 500 km west of New York, “arrested Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old man, for possession of firearms. At this time, we believe this is the person we are looking for in the targeted and unscrupulous killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare,” said Jessica Tisch, the head of the New York Police Department. , during a press briefing alongside Mayor Eric Adams.
Earlier, American media announced that this man was being questioned by local police, after being found in possession of the same type of weapon used in the assassination of Brian Thompson, the director of UnitedHealthcare, giant of American health insurance.
According to the New York Times, which relied on sources close to the investigation, he was flagged down by a witness in a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in Altoona, and presented a false identity card, similar to the one used by the killer to check into a New York hotel the night before the crime.
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“Hostility towards American companies”
According to one of the police officials, Joseph Kenny, the man was carrying a document suggesting that “he has hostility towards American companies.”
Wednesday morning at dawn, the killer approached Brian Thompson, 50, and coldly shot him in the middle of the street in front of passers-by, in front of a Manhattan hotel, a scene filmed by a video surveillance camera now seen by millions of 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 investor conference in the Midtown business district.
At this point, police have not reported a motive.
Authorities also did not confirm media reports that the words “delay” and “deny” – terms often used by insurance companies to reject claims – were included. on the shell casings found at the scene.
Several photographs of the suspect, taken from video surveillance cameras, had been released by the police, who also promised a reward for any information that could help the investigation. The photos show a white man, young and thin, with his face uncovered, facing forward, hood on his head and with a black choker.
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Strong emotion and hateful comments
UnitedHealth Group insures 51 million people and works with government programs such as Medicare, the senior health insurance system.
The death of Brian Thompson, in a premeditated assassination in the middle of the street, caused great emotion, but it was also accompanied by hateful comments on social networks against American health insurance programs, proof of anger profound with regard to a lucrative system, accused of enriching itself at the expense of patients.
The Network Contagion Research Institute, a research center specializing in digital issues, identified “a surge of highly engaged posts across social media glorifying the event, some even calling for additional acts of violence, sparking dozens millions of views.
