Detectives investigating suspected killer Luigi Mangione say there is “no evidence” he was ever insured with UnitedHealthcare, despite allegedly shooting their CEO last week.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione may have attacked CEO Brian Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan on December 4 because of his status as America’s largest health insurer.
“We have no indication that he has ever been a United Healthcare customer, but he does mention that it is the fifth largest company in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America,” Kenny told NBC.
‘He knew in advance that the conference took place on that date, at that location. So that may be why he focused on that company.”
Kenny referred to a notebook investigators allegedly found after Mangione’s arrest, which detailed the murder of a CEO that was eerily similar to Thompson’s murder.
‘What are you doing? You punch the CEO at the annual parasitic bean control convention. It is targeted, accurate and does not endanger innocents,” the note said.
It comes as Mangione fights extradition to New York following his dramatic arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where police say he was found with a 3D-printed gun, a silencer and a handwritten anti-capitalist manifesto.
Alleged murderer Luigi Mangione was not insured by UnitedHealthcare despite allegedly shooting their CEO last week
Footage captures the moment UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked gunman, allegedly by Mangione, before fleeing the city
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that officers from the San Francisco Police Department recognized Mangione and contacted the FBI four days before his arrest.
Police sources report this San Francisco Chronicle that an officer from 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 Mangione was arrested on November 9, New York authorities insisted he was not on their radar.
Mangione’s arrest made international headlines and set off a social media frenzy, with many wondering how a handsome 26-year-old computer programmer from a wealthy, Ivy League-educated family became an alleged murderer.
A grand jury was convened in New York following Mangione’s arrest, although he is fighting extradition and is scheduled to appear 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 appears he was in an accident in July 2023 that sent him to the emergency room, and 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 a life-altering, life-altering injury, and that may have set him on this path.”
After the NYPD drew criticism when the suspect apparently slipped out of town before being apprehended by luck nearly 300 miles away, Kenny said detectives have since investigated Mangione’s movements after the shooting.
Kenny said Mangione’s family reported him missing in San Francisco in November, and he arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on November 24.
He said Mangione then “immediately heads to a McDonald’s near the Hilton hotel” before heading to a hostel on the Upper West Side.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, seen at a press conference on December 4, provided new details about Mangione’s movements after the alleged murder
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 4
Kenny said that after arriving in the city, Mangione checked into an Upper West Side hostel, where they obtained this image of his face that was released during the manhunt.
Mangione was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after customers and staff said they recognized him from NYPD footage
The detective said Mangione “regularly came and went” from the hostel over the next few days, often using e-bikes.
Immediately after allegedly shooting Thompson, he took a taxi north of Manhattan to the George Washington Port Authority Bus Terminal, he said.
“We got it from there. We think he took the subway back to Penn Station and went from there to Philadelphia,” Kenny continued.
The NYPD is still unclear how Mangione ended up in Pittsburg and then to his arrest in Altoona, but Kenny says investigators have a clearer understanding of how he paid for the trip.
“In terms of how he got by when he was arrested, he had a significant amount of cash on him. “He took money out of an ATM and everything he did, he paid in cash,” he said.
Mangione was reportedly found with $8,000 in U.S. dollars and $2,000 in unspecified foreign currency when he was arrested.
When he was arrested, Mangione was reportedly found with a 3D-printed gun (pictured), a silencer and a handwritten anti-capitalist manifesto.
Mangione’s family reported him missing in California in November, and it was revealed that SFPD officers recognized him from the report after the NYPD released images of the suspect.
Other evidence against Mangione includes a water bottle and KIND bar wrapper found at the scene of Thompson’s murder that he allegedly purchased at a Starbucks half an hour before the shooting.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said this week that police found five fingerprints on the water bottle and two on the KIND bar wrapper, and that his DNA reportedly matched the crime.
Kenny said the gun found in Mangione’s bag also matched shell casings found at the scene.
“We took (the gun) to our forensic laboratory, where we were able to match that gun to the three discharge casings recovered at the scene. So it was a ballistic match,” Kenny said.