ALTOONA, Pa. – While UnitedHealthcare The alleged killer of CEO Brian Thompson The motive was not revealed by officials, and the public speculated that the suspect had strong grievances with both the health care industry and capitalism in general.
Authorities arrested Luigi Mangione26, at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, where he allegedly gave local police a fake ID and appeared to begin shaking when they asked him if he had been in New York recently.
Authorities also found a handwritten statement condemning the health care industry, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney previously told Fox News. The statement specifically mentioned UnitedHealthcare.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels in New York City, told Fox News Digital that “in every era, there are people who go out and take the law into their own hands, and become heroes.”
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Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, screams as officers handcuff him as he arrives for his extradition hearing in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. (David De Delgado for Fox News Digital)
“In this case, I think what's most surprising to me is the number of women who have embraced Luigi not because he's a handsome guy with abs, but because of what they think is this massive transgression, especially if this is a particular healthcare company,” Saliwa said. “You have a lot of rejections of procedures that were guaranteed.”
He added his belief that anger over the health care industry had occurred It emerged from Thompson's murder out of place.
“These people in the health care insurance industry have severe problems with how they work. But you can't settle things by shooting people in the back.”
The Altoona Police Department said in a news conference Tuesday that it is actively investigating threats against civilians and McDonald's employees after reports surfaced that a worker at the fast food chain called 911 to report seeing Mangione, who was arrested shortly after the call. The police department also received threats.
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot to death in midtown Manhattan on December 4. (BUSINESS WIRE | NYPD Crime Stoppers)
“This is not the way we handle things,” Sliwa said. “Don't start by threatening the person you're responsible for identifying. This is a bit like gang law when they say: 'Snitches get stitches and end up in ditches.'”
“America is currently going through a period of heightened populist sentiment, a period of increasing anger toward elites, especially wealthy corporate executives,” Nicholas Creel, associate professor of business law and ethics at Georgia College and State University, told Fox News Digital.
“It is not surprising to see that many people sympathize with the criminal more than the victim in this case.”
“This explains why so many people across social media began expressing their support for Luigi Mangione's actions as soon as they learned who his victim was,” Creel said. “The health insurance CEO is perhaps the pinnacle of the wealthy elite that many now see as responsible for their financial problems, so it is not surprising to see many people sympathizing with the criminal more than the victim in this case.”
Luigi Mangione is pictured in a photo in Pennsylvania after his arrest in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Creel added that the rhetoric of those who support Mangione “can have a very clear and negative impact on the safety of wealthy corporate executives, because it gives people a specific target for their anger.”
“Which is why several other health insurance companies immediately removed the identifying information of their executive teams, in an attempt to make it more difficult for them at least to be defeated by the populist mob who see this murder as a rallying point for a strike,” Creel said. companies.
Who is Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO?
The suspected gunman in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, believed to be Luigi Mangione, was seen flirting with a hotel employee in surveillance footage before the Dec. 4 shooting. (nypd)
Dr. Rachel D. said: Miller, LMFT, founder of Hold the Vision Therapy in Chicago, told Fox News Digital that she sees the effects of capitalism's inequality in her practice and with her clients every day.
“Almost everyone faces a major medical catastrophe due to being homeless, and the system continues to pressure them from multiple angles.”
“What I have seen in my clinical work is increased anxiety about job stability, increased challenges in being able to make ends meet and an underlying fear of any catastrophic event, such as losing a car, loss of health care,“Miller said.
Luigi Mangione is currently being held at the SCI Huntingdon State Correctional Facility in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, after his arrest Monday for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. (David De Delgado for Fox News Digital)
Likewise, Bill Knack, founder and president of First Responder Protective Services, which provides executive protection to leaders and dignitaries across the country, told Fox News Digital that such rhetoric “creates a slow burn of anger that turns into action.”
“It prompts people who are already dissatisfied with wealth to follow messages that target particular leaders,” he added. “We have managed cases where executives faced direct and specific threats after their names were spread through similar writings online.”
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Luigi Mangione is pictured in a Facebook photo. (Luigi Mangione/Facebook)
Mangione, a private high school-educated young professional from the Baltimore area, is charged with multiple counts in both Pennsylvania and New York, where he faces a murder charge.
Since his arrest, Internet investigators have been looking into Mangione's extensive and documented social media presence, where many users have praised the murder suspect for allegedly killing Thompson, who was a married father of two originally from a small town in Iowa.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER LUIGI MANGIONE COMPLAINED ABOUT BACK SURGERY BEFORE THE MURDER
Bullets litter the sidewalk at the scene outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed on December 4. (Stefan Jeremiah/AP)
A professor at Mangione's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, even took to TikTok and Instagram to express praise for the suspect, which she has since retracted.
Vice Dean of the UPenn College of Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Kalleberg issued a statement Wednesday regarding the position of UPenn Assistant Professor of English Julia Alexeyeva.
“Recent social media posts attributed to Assistant Professor Julia Alekseeva have raised a lot of concern,” Kalberg said. “Her comments regarding the shooting of Brian Thompson in New York City were inconsistent with the values of both the College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania, and were not condoned by the school or university. After reflection, Assistant Professor Alexieva agreed that the comments were insensitive and inappropriate and retracted them,” said Assistant Professor Alexieva.
Luigi Mangione has been charged in connection with the December 4 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (pictured inset) in New York.
Former Washington Post and New York Times correspondent Taylor Lorenz told Piers Morgan that she and “many other Americans” were “joyed” at the news of Thompson's death.
“I, like many other Americans, felt unfortunately sad.”
He added: “I believe in the sanctity of life and I believe that is why I, along with many other Americans, unfortunately feel joy.” Lorenz told Morgan on Monday, later adding: “Maybe not joy, but certainly not compassion.”
On Goodreads, a platform where users review and track books they've read, a profile matching Mangione wrote a review of a book by Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.
“It is easy to quickly and thoughtlessly write this off as a crazy statement, to avoid confronting some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” he wrote. “But it is simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions are about modern society.”
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO slaughters suspect Luigi Mangione's first meal behind bars
While writing about Kaczynski's “Industrial Society and Its Future,” he quoted another Internet passage that he “found interesting.”
“When all other forms of communication fail,” he wrote, “violence becomes necessary for survival.” “You may not like his methods, but to see things from his point of view, this is not terrorism, but war and revolution.”
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, faces charges in both New York and Pennsylvania. (David De Delgado for Fox News Digital)
Mangione recently lived in a coloring space in Honolulu called Surfbreak Coliving, which is described on her website as a “coworking space for remote workers and digital nomads.”
“The entire time (Mangione) lived at Surfbreak, he was a great member of the community,” his former roommate, RJ Martin, told Fox News Channel's Jesse Waters on Tuesday. “he Kind of followed by our values It is our morals to leave things better than we found them. He was always contributing and taking care of others. Even after he left, he came back and contributed to the community, leading the book club.”
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In New York, Mangione faces one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of weapons, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of weapons.
In Pennsylvania, he faces a charge of forgery, a charge of carrying a firearm without a license, a charge of tampering with records or identity, a charge of possessing tools of a crime, and a charge of providing a false identity to law enforcement authorities, according to the American “space” website. To court documents.
Fox News' Molly Markowitz contributed to this report.
