The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson may have targeted the company due to its size and influence, according to a senior police official. Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York police department, revealed that there is no evidence that the accused, Luigi Mangione, was ever a client of the insurer. However, Mangione had prior knowledge of the company’s annual conference in New York City and mentioned its importance in a note found in his possession.
Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and remains jailed without bail as he fights extradition back to New York to face a murder charge. The 26-year-old, identified as an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, has been charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and providing false identification to police in Pennsylvania. His lawyer insists on his client’s innocence.
The shooter waited outside a Manhattan hotel where the UnitedHealthcare conference was held before approaching Thompson from behind and fatally shooting him. Mangione was apprehended after being spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, miles away from the crime scene. Investigators are probing into Mangione’s writings critiquing corporate America and the US healthcare system, as well as an accident that injured his back in July. A hearing for his extradition to New York is scheduled for late December.
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