On December 4 2024, the CEO of United Healthcare was fatally shot at 6:44 AM in Midtown Manhattan. Security cameras captured glimpses of the suspect, and a state-wide search began.
The CEO, Brian Thompson, managed the company from 2021 to his death, and he increased UHC’s profits from 12 billion in 2021 to 16 billion in 2023. At the time of Thompson’s death, the company was the largest health insurer in the United States. United Healthcare insures 49 million Americans and generated $281 billion in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year. However, UHC faced criticism for its approach to handling claims.
When the assailant – dressed in a brown hoodie and armed with a glock and a 3-D printer suppressor – fired his gun, his casings with the words “Deny,” “Defend” and “Depose” etched onto them fell to the ground. These words are meant to be against the UHC’s policies.
Later, on December 9, local police arrested the alleged assailant at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responding to a call from a customer who suspected similarities between the customer’s appearance and images of Thompson’s alleged killer released by the New York City Police Department.
The man arrested in Altoona was Luigi Mangione, a valedictorian and University of Pennsylvania graduate.
Immediately, Mangione was charged with forgery, carrying a gun without a license, falsely identifying himself to authorities, and possessing instruments of crime. As he was led to the courthouse, Magione dramatically shouted to the gathered cameras that the coverage of the event was “completely out of touch and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience.”
On December 17, Mangione was formally indicted by the police on eleven charges.
After his arrest and after the shooting, Mangione received support primarily online: “#FreeLuigi” was shared over 50 thousand times on X after his arrest, the sweater he was wearing during the shooting sold out overnight, and, perhaps most humorously, the McDonald’s where he was found was flooded with negative reviews. Furthermore, graffiti around the world was in both support and criticism of him, T-Shirts on Amazon and Etsy being sold, even a billboard with the words, “Free Luigi” was seen in Riverside County California.
Mangione was charged with all counts of murder, including second-degree murder as an act of terrorism. Now Mangione is in Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn awaiting his final jurisdiction. His next court hearing for the federal charges is scheduled for March 19, according to his attorneys.
