San Francisco police identified Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and notified the FBI four days before his widely publicized arrest, according to a new report.
Sources told the San Francisco Chronicle that an officer recognized the 26-year-old from surveillance footage released by the NYPD following Thompson’s fatal shooting last week and alerted federal authorities. Mangione was already known to California police because his family had reported him missing on November 18, just weeks before the incident, the sources said. When Mangione was finally arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Monday, following a five-day manhunt, authorities said the suspect’s identity wasn’t on their radar.
Cops Identified Killer Days Before Arrest
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It remains unclear whether the FBI ever received the tip from the police or if they took action based on it. The details emerged as investigators work to determine the motive behind the brutal killing, including the possibility that a back injury Mangione suffered in July of the previous year may have sparked an alleged grudge against the healthcare industry.
Authorities are also scrutinizing photos from Mangione’s social media, which included X-ray images of a person’s back, as well as a three-page manifesto-like document containing vehement criticisms of “parasitic” health insurance companies, according to an NYPD official.
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“He posted X-rays of numerous screws being inserted into his spine — and [in] some of the writings, he was discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury,” the official said.
“As far as motive, it looks like he had animus toward the healthcare industry.”
This came as a senior NYPD official said on Thursday that Mangione was never a client of the medical insurance company. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC that Mangione likely targeted Thompson because of UnitedHealthcare’s size and influence in the healthcare industry.
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Kenny also revealed that investigators found evidence indicating Mangione knew about UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference, which was taking place at a Manhattan hotel on the same day he launched the deadly attack on the company’s CEO.
Motive Still Unclear
When Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s on Monday, authorities also found a note resembling a manifesto in his possession. The note reportedly mentioned UnitedHealthcare and accused health insurance companies of engaging in corporate greed, according to sources cited by The New York Post.
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“We have no indication that he was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America,” Kenny told the outlet.
“So that’s possibly why he targeted that company.”
Mangione is now facing murder charges and is being held at the State Correctional Institution in Huntington, Pennsylvania, after being denied bail by a judge earlier this week.
