The man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not a customer of the mammoth insurance company.
UnitedHealth Group issued a statement saying Luigi Mangione, 26, was never insured by the company, said, according to NBC.
New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that a review of Mangione’s social media and writings shows that a back injury he suffered was a “life-altering injury.”
Kenny said Thompson could have been targeted because of the sheer size of UnitedHealthcare.
“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,” Kenny said.
An NYPD intelligence report about Mangione said anger against the health insurance industry and “corporate greed” were driving Mangione’s actions, according to CNN.
“He appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and ‘power games,’ asserting in his note he is the ‘first to face it with such brutal honesty,’” the assessment said.
A manifesto from Mangione was published by Ken Klippenstein on his website.
Will a copycat killing take place?
“I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” Mangione wrote.
“A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy?” he wrote.
“No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it,” he wrote.
“Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain,” he wrote.
“It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty,” he wrote.
On Friday, the law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP. Announced that former New York City prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo will defend Mangione against his expected murder charges, according to ABC.
Mangione is currently being held in Pennsylvania, where he is fighting extradition to New York State.
Friedman Agnifilo was the second-in-command to former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2014 to 2021.
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