Pennsylvania police detain suspect in murder of United Healthcare CEO

Law enforcement officials identified Luigi Mangione on Monday as the suspect in the murder of a top executive at the nation’s largest private health insurance company.

PEOPLE: “An X account belonging to a Luigi Mangione describes him as a Honolulu, Hawaii, resident"

by Josh Russell, CourtHouseNews, December 9, 2024

MANHATTAN (CN) ­ — The massive manhunt for the suspect in the targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City concluded Monday when police arrested Luigi Mangione in a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

The arrest came days after a man clad in a black facemask was captured on surveillance video footage calmly shooting Thompson, CEO of the insurer division of the largest private health insurance corporation in America, in the back and chest point blank near the entrance to a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Mangione, a 26-year-old Maryland native, was identified based on a tip from a McDonald’s employee who recognized him at about 9:15 a.m. on Monday morning, five days after the fatal shooting.

He was arrested on unrelated firearms charges by Altoona police, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Tisch said Mangione showed the police the same fake New Jersey identification that the man authorities had believed to be the gunman presented when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan a week before the shooting.

New York City mayor Eric Adams applauded the investigative efforts of the New York City Police Department, including the circulation of photos of the suspect. "How did we do it? Good old fashioned police work," he said at a preplanned news conference.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was arrested with 9mm ghost gun and a silencer, along with a three-page handwritten manifesto document that expressed “ill will toward corporate America”

The New York Police Department described the shooter as “lying in wait” on Wednesday morning outside of the Hilton hotel, where the health insurance giant was holding its annual investor conference, to carry out what they said was not a random act of violence.

The suspect wore a hooded jacket, black face mask and large gray backpack, and fled through Midtown on foot before riding an electric bike into Central Park a few blocks away, police said.

At a press conference after the murder Wednesday, NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch described the premeditated shooting as a “brazen, targeted attack”.

Surveillance video footage of the shooting appeared to show that the handgun was augmented with a sound suppressor extension commonly referred to as a “silencer”.

A day later, multiple news outlets reported that the killer had written words on bullet casings that he left at the scene: "deny," "depose," and "defend," which drew comparisons to the title of a 2010 book critical of the health insurance industry, "Delay Deny Defend".

“Delay, deny, defend” has effectively become rallying cry for detractors industry. The terms refer to insurers delaying payment on claims, denying claims and defending their actions.

UnitedHealth is a publicly traded Delaware corporation headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The parent company is a vertically integrated insurer, health care provider, pharmacy benefit manager, and health care software and services vendor that brought in $372 billion in revenue in 2023

UnitedHealth Group’s efforts to expand and take over competition have repeatedly drawn scrutiny from federal regulators and advocacy groups.

This year, the Department of Justice brought antitrust claims against the company over its proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of competing home health and hospice services provider Amedisys.

Two years earlier, the feds sued to block UnitedHealth Group’s $13 billion deal to acquire health technology company Change Healthcare.

Universal healthcare advocacy groups held demonstrations outside the company’s Minnetonka headquarters earlier this year, in protest against the Fortune 500 company’s systemic denial of care for patients.

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Luigi N Mangione only one case on ECourtKokua: "Nov 12, 2023:  Violate HRS 708-815 Simple trespass case #1DCC-23-0012236.  Present in court Dec 12, 2023.  Pled no contest $100 fine paid Dec 12, 2023."  DLNR Police cite tresspass at Nuuanu Lookout 'Closed Area'.  Mangione gave Maryland address and Drivers License.  Zillow says house in MD was sold for $865K June 6, 2024.

CB: Luigi Mangione's Hawaiʻi Friends Shocked By Arrest In UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting - Honolulu Civil Beat  Luigi Mangione lived at the Surfbreak co-living community at 1750 Kalakaua near Ala Moana Park on Oʻahu.

DM: Luigi Mangione is heir to holiday resort fortune created by his grandparents and has sister who's top doctor | Daily Mail Online

NY Post:  “The suspect nabbed in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from “Unabomber’’ Ted Kaczynski — and seethed in a manifesto, “These parasites had it coming,” law enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.  Tech whiz Luigi Mangione, 26, originally from Towson, Md., apparently hated the medical community because of how it treated his sick relative, sources said.”

PEOPLE: “An X account belonging to a Luigi Mangione describes him as a Honolulu, Hawaii, resident with a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said he was born and raised in Maryland and has ties to San Francisco, Calif.; Honolulu was his last known address.  The suspect had no known prior arrests, Kenny said, and the NYPD did not have his name on their radar until his arrest in Altoona.”

Luigi Mangione (@PepMangione) / X

Mangione’s Linktree site features a line of emojis which translate:  “As a tech-savvy nerd, I'm a ninja who exercises regularly, practices yoga, and lifts weights, but I also love reading books and learning new things, and I believe that knowledge is power, just like a gorilla's strength, and it's all about balance, like the yin and yang, and in the end, justice will prevail, just like a judge's verdict.”

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