Luigi Mangione, suspect behind UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting, not a client of the medical insurer—police
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect charged with murder in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson, wasn't a client of the medical insurance company.
New York Police District Chief Detective Joseph Kenny told NBC New York they 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 healthcare organization in America," Kenny said. "So that’s possibly why he targeted that company."
UnitedHealthcare is in the top 20 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization but is not the fifth largest, Associated Press clarified. It's the largest U.S. health insurer.
Kenny said investigators found evidence that Mangione had prior knowledge that UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in the city.
Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when police arrested him in Pennsylvania, according to Kenny.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down from behind outside a Manhattan hotel early Wednesday morning, Dec. 4, by a masked man who appeared to wait for his arrival.
The suspect ran from the scene and then rode a bike into Central Park. A closed-circuit television footage captured him exiting the park and taking a taxi to a bus station in northern Manhattan, where police believe he used a bus to flee the city.
The words "deny," "defend," and "depose" were carved into the shell casings found at the crime scene. They seem to allude to the 2010 book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, which criticizes the insurance industry.
Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after a fellow customer spotted him eating at a McDonald's in Altoona, about 370 kilometers west of New York City. An employee also found that he resembled the gunman in surveillance images released by the police.
When approached by two police officers inside the McDonald's and asked if he had recently been in New York, Mangione began to shake and went quiet, one of the responding officers said at a press conference. He had been wearing a mask and sitting alone with a laptop and backpack.
His backpack was found to have a loaded "ghost gun," an untraceable firearm assembled from parts, and a silencer. The weapon and his clothing closely resembled the gunman's in the surveillance video.
Mangione also had multiple fake identifications, including a fraudulent New Jersey ID that matched the one used by the gunman to check into a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.
He remains in prison without bail.
Mangione's lawyer Thomas Dickey said he intends to plead not guilty. Dickey added that he has yet to see evidence decisively linking his client to the crime.
Mangione graduated from a private all-boys school in Baltimore as valedictorian in 2016 before earning dual engineering degrees in 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania, a prestigious Ivy League university, according to school records. His last known address was in Honolulu, officials said.
Thompson's murder came amid the frustration of several Americans, who have seen their health insurance claims or care denied, faced unexpected costs, or paid more for premiums and medical care.
Thompson, a father of two, became UnitedHealthcare chief in 2021, which was supposedly part of a 20-year career with the company.
