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Maxim T'sjoen
Published on
Dec 11 2024 at 12:52 p.m.
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Coldly shot dead in the street. A week ago, Wednesday December 4, 2024, Brian Thompsonboss of the leading health insurer in the United States, UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in the middle of Manhattan in New York. A visibly targeted assassination.
Brian Thompson, 50, was shot around 7 a.m. local time near a hotel in midtown Manhattan and died on arrival at the hospital. The suspect then fled on a bicycle. The main suspect, Luigi Mangione, was arrested five days later, Monday December 9, at a McDonald's in the rural town of Altoona, 300 miles west of New York.
If all the gray areas have not yet been clarified, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together regarding the reasons for this assassination.
A suspect found in five days
We know more about the conditions in which the assassination took place: Luigi Mangione arrived on November 24 in New York, having come by bus from Atlanta, Georgia, 1,500 km to the south and stayed in a hostel in youth – as evidenced by the photo where he smiles at an employee – thanks to a false identity document from the neighboring state of New Jersey.
To identify him, police found DNA on a water bottle and various objects found at the crime scene.
These clues made it possible to locate Luigi Mangione 500 km from New York.
According to the court document indicting him for murder, he was in particular in possession of a false driving license and “a semi-automatic pistol with what appears to be a 3D printed magazine and silenceras well as a written confession to the crime,” when he was arrested.
What reasons?
A week after the crime, police are seeking to explain why this brilliant former student at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania and originally from a wealthy Baltimore family shot Brian Thompson in cold blood.
In the document found on Luigi Mangione, a handwritten text, “he suggests he is frustrated with the US health care system“, explained the head of investigators of the New York police, Joseph Kenny, on the show Good Morning America on the channel ABC.
More specifically, Luigi Mangione explains that our healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, while the life expectancy of an American is ranked 42nd in the world. He has written extensively about his disdain for corporate America and particularly the healthcare industry.
According to people who frequented it, cited in the New York Times, the young man suffered from serious back problems which handicapped him in his daily and intimate life.
Among the photos posted on his X profile is a medical X-ray image that appears to show pins implanted in a person's lower back.
Another shows Luigi Mangione all smiles, shirtless and muscular, during a hike in a superb mountain setting.
UnitedHealthcare insures 51 million people
Brian Thompson was part of parent company UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and has led its health arm UnitedHealthcare since 2021, which insures 51 million people and works with government programs such as Medicare, the federal health insurance system for seniors.
UnitedHealth Group has 440,000 employees and $371 billion in annual revenue.
Hate comments and fear of the police
If the death of Brian Thompson caused great emotion, but it was also accompanied by hateful comments on social media against American health insurance programs, illustrating deep anger in the country towards a lucrative system accused of enriching itself on the backs of patients.
In an internal memo cited by the New York Timesthe police are concerned that the suspect is perceived “as a martyr” by some and “an example to follow”.
“The use of violence to fight corporate greed is unacceptable,” condemned White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday.
« We don't kill people in cold blood for political reasons. or to express a point of view,” Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro also condemned on Monday.
“I have not seen any evidence that proves he is the shooter”
Charged with murder, Luigi Mangione appeared this Tuesday, December 10 in a court in Blair County, Pennsylvania.
Images showed the athletic-looking young man, with curly black hair and an orange prison jumpsuit, exiting a police vehicle handcuffed to be taken to court.
We suddenly see him become agitated, forcing the police officers who escort him to hold him down and pin him against a wall. He vehemently throws out the words “unfair” and “this is an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
In court, the suspect contested his transfer to New York, where justice awaits to judge him, which will slow down the procedure and create “more obstacles,” admitted the county prosecutor, Peter Weeks.
Luigi Mangione's lawyers have 14 days to file their arguments against their client's transfer to New York. One of them, Thomas Dickey, told reporters in Pennsylvania he planned to plead not guilty.
“I have not seen any evidence that proves that he is the shooter,” said Luigi Mangione's defender.
with AFP.
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