December 17, 2024
More details have surfaced pertaining to the background of UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione this week, as social media users continue to look for hidden meanings across his social media accounts.
On Wednesday, 4 December 2024, at 6:44 a.m., UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel while on route to a UnitedHealth Group’s investor conference.
Thompson was the CEO of the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, and he had received death threats in the past from those who were denied insurance coverage.
UnitedHealthcare is no stranger to criticism and threats due to the company’s plans to usher in a plan to deny payment for emergency hospital visits deemed "noncritical." Thompson, who was CEO since April 2021, had also began automating claim denials utilizing artificial intelligence to do so, blocking many patients around the U.S. from accessing medical care.
UnitedHealth Group faced a class action suit last year when it was alleged the company used nH Predict, a program developed by naviHealth that uses an algorithm to allegedly deny coverage to patients. The model was found to have a staggering 90% rate of error.
The shooter fled the scene, leaving behind three shell cases with the words “deny,” “delay,” “depose” written on them in black marker.
Media outlets reported that the words could be linked to the phrase: "delay, deny, defend," a phrase used in the insurance industry by companies who do not want to pay out on insurance claims.
The victim was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m. at Mount Sinai West hospital.
The gun was suspected to be a ghost gun, and it was believed the firearm malfunctioned during the shooting, and that the shooter had to manually cycle it.
Investigators scoured through CCTV footage around the city to trace the suspects movements before and after the shooting. They discovered that he arrived in New York City on Sunday 24 November 2024, on a bus that dropped him off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. From there, he took a taxicab to the area of the Hilton hotel where he would later shoot the victim. The suspect remained in the area for around half an hour, before taking another taxi cab to Manhattan’s Upper West Side where he checked himself in to a hostel on Amsterdam Avenue.
The suspect paid in cash and showed a form of ID believed to be fake. He stayed in a shared dorm with two other individuals but remained masked, so they never saw his face.
On Wednesday 4 December, the day of the shooting, the suspect left the hostel at around 5:30 a.m. on an e-bicycle. He paced around in the vicinity of the Hilton hotel where the victim was staying and ordered something from a nearby Starbucks.
At 6:44a.m he appeared in footage from outside the Hilton hotel, shooting the victim multiple times from behind. The suspect had laid in wait on the other side of the street, and crossed over when he saw the victim emerge from the hotel.
The suspect fled the scene and the city, and a reward was put out for anyone who could provide information that led to an arrest.
The shooters backpack was found December 6, 2024, in central park. It contained Monopoly money as well as the suspects jacket.
A photograph of the suspect at the hostel was released to the public in the hope that someone could identify him.
A still image from Hotel CCTV showing the gunman smiling generated memes across social media in support of the shooter, whom many regarded as justified in his actions.
The suspect was asked by a receptionist at the hostel to "see his pretty smile," and he obliged, taking down his mask.
He was eventually found at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a several day manhunt, and was identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione.
He was arrested at 9:14 a.m. on Monday 9 December. A worker at the fast food restaurant made a call to police to report a man matching the description of the suspect.
When officers arrived, they said they asked the suspect to remove the mask and asked if he had been in New York in last several days.
Officers said: “He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking at that question.”
Mangione was taken in for questioning, and by 6:45 p.m. that evening in a courtroom in Pennsylvania, had been charged with forgery, providing false identification to law enforcement authorities, possession of a firearm without a license, tampering with records or identification, and possessing instruments of a crime.
He was formally charged with murder later that same night, as well as additional charges of criminal possession of a weapon and possession of a forged instrument.
Following the arrest, social media users began looking at Mangione’s social media accounts.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione is 26 years old. He was class valedictorian at Baltimore secondary school and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering in computer and information science.
Up until 2023 he was employed as a data engineer for a company called TrueCar.
He was last known to be living in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was actually considered a missing person. He ceased contact with his family in the summer of 2024, and his mother reported him missing in November 2024.
An alleged manifesto thought to be that of Mangione has been referenced by various media outlets. The document, which is under 300 words and handwritten, is made out to federal law enforcement, and apologises for the shooting and any trauma it may cause, while stating it "had to be done." The alleged manifesto refers to healthcare executives as "parasites" who "had it coming."
In July of 2023, Mangione went to an emergency room for a back injury.
X-rays Mangione published to his social media accounts show screws in his back due to a slipped spinal vertebra. Police have a working theory that he may have harboured a deep resentment towards health insurance companies in general.
Mangione’s Twitter account banner features the Pokémon Breloom, whose Pokédex number is 286. His account also has 286 posts.
Social media users believe there is significance to the number, and have been coming up with theories surrounding the number, including what they believe to be references to healthcare insurance acts and bible proverbs.
Currently, Mangione remains in custody at a Pennsylvania state prison, and is expected to waive extradition to New York.
December 10, 2024
