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As investigators sought a motive for the suspect alleged to have murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the NYPD ruled out one potential connection.
Vigilante fantasists enamored with the Dec. 4 slaying of the husband and father had readily attached their own desire to see health insurance executives suffer over industry practices. Speaking with NBC 4, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny asserted no specific link between their suspect, Luigi Mangione, and UHC.
“We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth-largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health care organization in America,” Kenny said. “So, that’s possibly why he targeted that company.”
Watch the @NBCNewYork interview where Chief of @NYPDDetectives Joseph Kenny and Deputy Commissioner of @NYPDCT Rebecca Weiner provide investigative updates regarding the Midtown Manhattan homicide: pic.twitter.com/dfJOSHymLg
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) December 13, 2024
During the interview, which included NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner, Kenny went on to note of the suspect allegedly waiting for Thompson outside the Midtown Manhattan Hilton Hotel where an Investor’s Day conference was scheduled, “He had prior knowledge that the conference was taking place on that date at that location.”
Despite not having insurance through UHC, Mangione’s social media activity readily shared images attributed to a medical procedure described by the chief of detectives.
“It seems that he had an accident that caused him to go to the emergency room back in July of 2023, and that it was a life-changing injury. He posted X-rays of screws being inserted into his spine,” said Kenny. “So, the injury that he suffered was, was a life-changing, life-altering injury, and that’s what may have put him on this path.”
While it was initially unclear where the suspect had gone after arriving at an uptown bus station, having fled the crime scene via bike and then cab, the NYPD official explained how the man was believed to have then doubled back on the subway, traveling to Penn Station to head to Philadelphia, and from there Altoona, Pennsylvania where he was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s.
As law enforcement confirmed a ballistics match with the firearm recovered with the suspect and the shell casings found at the scene, and more than $5,000 in $100 bills were in his possession, writings had also been obtained that allegedly stated, “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” instead of using a bomb.
Fingerprints were also said to be a match with the suspect and those discovered on a water bottle and KIND bar wrapper located near the scene that the suspect had been seen purchasing at a nearby Starbucks prior to Thompson’s murder.
While the police had yet to speak with the suspect’s family at the time of the interview, the NYPD was aware that a missing person report had been filed in November in San Francisco. Mangione was said to have arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 via bus from Atlanta, Georgia.
In their own statement, the Mangiones had said in part, “We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
Kenny hoped the suspect would be extradited to New York “within the next 30 days” as he was next scheduled to appear in a Pennsylvania court on gun charges on Dec. 30.
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