Arrest of Luigi Mangione
His reaction immediately aroused the officers' suspicions
Updated 12/11/2024 – 1:35 a.mReading time: 3 minutes
During the investigation into the murder of US insurance boss Brian Thompson, the police found clues about the possible motive. The suspect was carrying a manifesto.
During the investigation into the murder of insurance company boss Brian Thompson in New York, the police found clues about the suspect's possible motive. According to police, Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in Pennsylvania, was carrying a manifesto in which he expressed his anger at the health care system in the United States. The 26-year-old was charged with murder after his arrest. On Tuesday he refused to comply with a transfer to New York.
“I was able to read this manifesto,” New York police chief investigator Joseph Kenny told US broadcaster ABC. Mangione was frustrated with health care in the United States. In his text he pointed out that the US healthcare system is the most expensive in the world – but the US is only 42nd in terms of life expectancy. “He has written a lot about his disdain for US corporations and the health care industry in particular,” Kenny said.
The news channel CNN, among others, quoted from the letter. According to reports, it is handwritten and two and a half pages long. In it, Mangione denounced health insurers who made their profits at the expense of the well-being of patients. “I apologize for the suffering and trauma,” Mangione wrote about his alleged crime. “These parasites deserve it. (…) It had to be done.”
Mangione was arrested on Monday in the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a day-long manhunt and was subsequently charged with murder, possession of a firearm and possession of forged documents. After the alleged murder last Wednesday, he fled on an e-bike and disappeared in Central Park.
A McDonald's employee in Altoona alerted investigators on Monday. Mangione was biting into his food – footage of which has now been released to the press by the police. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised the McDonald's employee, calling him a “hero.”
When the patrol arrived at the fast food restaurant, one of the police officers asked the 26-year-old whether he had recently been to New York. Mangione then became extremely nervous and answered evasively. “The officers became suspicious at that moment,” said a police spokesman. Shortly afterwards the handcuffs clicked.
The 26-year-old appeared in court in Blair County on Tuesday. TV footage shows the 26-year-old being brought to court in his hands and wearing orange prisoner clothing. There he refused a transfer to New York, as prosecutor Peter Weeks announced. His lawyers now had two weeks to present arguments in favor of remaining in Pennsylvania.
While Mangione was being led away by police officers, he resisted violently and shouted at the reporters on site that it was “unfair” and “an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
Police found a firearm and a silencer on him, “possibly made with a 3D printer.” Mangione is strongly suspected of having shot Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old head of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, on the street in New York on Wednesday last week.
Thompson has been at the helm of the company since 2021, one of the largest health insurers in the USA with 440,000 employees and annual sales of 371 billion dollars (353 billion euros).
His murder caused shock, but also led to a series of hateful comments online about US health insurers. The corporations were accused of enriching themselves at the expense of patients. On social media, Mangione is sometimes celebrated for his alleged crime, as if he were a kind of modern Robin Hood (read more here: How an ice-cold killer is made into a hero).
