Detectives investigating suspected assassin Luigi Mangione say there is ‘no indication’ he was ever insured by UnitedHealthcare, despite allegedly shooting their CEO last week.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione may have targeted CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 outside Manhattan’s Hilton Hotel due to its status as America’s largest health insurer.
‘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 healthcare organization in America,’ Kenny told NBC.
‘He had prior knowledge that the conference was taking place on that date, at that location. So that’s possibly why he targeted that that company.’
Kenny was referencing a notebook investigators allegedly found after Mangione’s arrest, which detailed the murder of a CEO that eerily matched Thompson’s assassination.
‘What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,’ the notebook reportedly read.
It comes as Mangione is fighting his extradition to New York following his dramatic arrest in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, where cops say he was found with a 3D printed gun, a silencer, and a handwritten anti-capitalist manifesto.
Alleged assassin Luigi Mangione was not insured by UnitedHealthcare, despite allegedly shooting their CEO last week
Footage captured the moment UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked gunman, allegedly at the hands of Mangione before he fled out of the city
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that San Francisco Police Department officers recognized Mangione and contacted the FBI four days before his arrest.
Police sources told the San Francisco Chronicle that an officer in the SFPD’s Special Victims Unit made the connection on December 5, the day after the NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect.
Despite allegedly reporting the connection the same day, when Mangione was arrested on November 9, New York authorities insisted that he was not on their radar.
Mangione’s arrest captured international headlines and sent social media into a frenzy, with many questioning how an Ivy-league educated, handsome 26-year-old computer programmer from a wealthy family became an alleged assassin.
A grand jury has been convened in New York following Mangione’s arrest, although he is fighting extradition and is next in court on December 23.
In his interview with NBC this week, Kenny said a back injury Mangione suffered last year may have been a turning point.
‘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 said.
‘He posted X-rays of screws being inserted into his spine. 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.’
After the NYPD was criticized as the suspect seemingly slipped out of the city before he was apprehended through luck almost 300 miles away, Kenny said detectives have since zeroed in on Mangione’s movements after the shooting.
Kenny said Mangione’s family reported him missing in San Francisco in November, and he arrived in New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal on November 24.
He said Mangione then ‘immediately goes to a McDonald’s in the vicinity of the Hilton hotel’, before making his way to a hostel in the Upper West Side.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, seen speaking at a press conference December 4, offered new details over Mangione’s movements after the alleged assassination
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 4
Kenny said Mangione checked into an Upper West Side hostel after arriving in the city, which is where they obtained this image of his face that was released during the manhunt
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday, after patrons and staff claimed they recognized him from the NYPD images
The detective said Mangione ‘was coming and going on a regular basis’ from the hostel over the next few days, often using e-bikes.
Immediately after allegedly shooting Thompson, he got a cab to north Manhattan to the George Washington Port Authority Bus Terminal, he said.
‘From there we have him. We believe he may have taken the subway back to Penn Station and then made his way to Philadelphia from there,’ Kenny continued.
The NYPD are still unclear how Mangione got to Pittsburg and then to his arrest in Altoona, however Kenny said investigators are clearer on how he paid for the trip.
‘As far as how he was getting by when he was arrested, he had a substantial amount of cash on him. He was getting money from an ATM, everything he did he was paying for in cash,’ he said.
Mangione was allegedly found with $8000 in US dollars and $2000 in an unspecified foreign currency when he was arrested.
When he was arrested, Mangione was allegedly found with a 3D printed gun (pictured), a silencer, and a handwritten anti-capitalist manifesto
Mangione’s family reported him missing in California back in November, and it was revealed that SFPD agents recognized him from the report after the NYPD released images of the suspect
Other evidence brought against Mangione includes a water bottle and KIND bar wrapper found at the scene of Thompson’s murder that he allegedly bought from a Starbucks half an hour before the shooting.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said this week that the force found five fingerprints on the water bottle and two on the KIND bar wrapper, and his DNA was reportedly matched to the crime.
Kenny said the gun found in Mangione’s bag also matched shell casings from the scene.
‘We brought [the gun] to our forensics laboratory, where we were able to match that gun to the three discharge shell casings were recovered at the scene. So it was a ballistics match,’ Kenny said.
