On Monday (9), Luigi Mangione, 26, was identified as a suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of the largest health insurance company in the US, UnitedHealthCare. Mangione was arrested by US police authorities and remains in custody.
The crime took place last Wednesday (4), when a man shot Thompson in front of a hotel in the Manhattan district of New York.
Who is Luigi Mangione?
Luigi Mangione was arrested on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee at a local McDonald's found him suspicious.
During the arrest, police found a homemade gun that matched the one used in the crime, as well as a silencer and false identity documents.
“He is also in possession of several items that we believe will connect him to this incident,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference.
In a manifesto found with Mangione, he allegedly stated that “these parasites deserved it” and “I apologize for any conflict and trauma, but it had to be done,” according to CNN.
Before the murder, Mangione lived in Honolulu, Hawaii. He excelled academically, being valedictorian of the class of 2016 at Gilman School, a boys' high school in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as having studied at the renowned Penn State University, one of the most prestigious in the country, where he earned a master's degree in computer engineering.
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| Foto: Reprodução |
He has not been formally charged with any crime so far, but is expected to face gun charges in New York and Pennsylvania, said Joe Kenny, the city's chief of police detectives.
“Officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to his motivation and mindset,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch
In a review posted on the Goodreads website and replicated by The New York Times, Luigi claims that “violence can be the path to political change” in a comment on a book by Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, the famous anarcho-primitivist terrorist from the USA.
Within seconds, Mangioni gained thousands of followers on his Twitter account, and is already followed by more than 30,000 people on the networks.
What happened?
Last Wednesday morning (4), Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthCare, was shot dead by a hooded man in Manhattan, New York. The crime took place while Thompson was arriving at a company event.
UnitedHealthCare is the largest health insurance company in the United States, with revenues estimated at US$ 455 billion by 2024, around R$ 2 trillion.
Thompson led a company often criticized for denying coverage and medical procedures. These practices have been pointed out as symbols of the failings of the predominantly private US healthcare system.
In 2023, UnitedHealthCare was the target of a class action lawsuit on behalf of patients who died after being denied procedures. The company used an artificial intelligence tool to evaluate requests, but investigations revealed that the technology had an error rate of 90%, a fact known to the company. Despite this, the system was maintained, as it was estimated that only 0.2% of patients would appeal denials.
This was not the only controversial case involving the company. In 2008, UnitedHealthCare was fined 173 million dollars for more than 900,000 violations of the California Unfair Insurance Practices Act.
On social media, many users expressed criticism of the company's actions, with some messages having an ironic tone. One comment read: “Prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers”, mocking UnitedHealthCare. Another, more incisive, stated: “Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth who got rich by denying medical care to human beings with families, absolutely deserved worse than he got.”
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