NEW YORK: The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was never a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City.
Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania.
“We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health care organization in America. So that’s possibly why he targeted that that company,” said Kenny.
Mangione remains jailed without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday after being spotted at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. His lawyer there said he hasn’t seen any evidence yet linking him to the crime.
Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Police say the shooter waited outside the hotel, where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, early on the morning of Dec. 4. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle through Central Park, then heading to a bus depot.
Mangione is fighting attempts to extradite him back to New York so that he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 30.
The 26-year-old, who police say was found with a ” ghost gun ” matching shell casings found at the site of the shooting, is charged in Pennsylvania with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, said his client is not guilty.
Mangione is an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family. On Wednesday, police said investigators are looking into an accident that injured Mangione’s back and sent him to an emergency room in July 2023. They’re also looking at his writings about the injury and his criticism of corporate America and the US health care system.
Kenny said in the NBC interview that Mangione’s family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November.
Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer
https://arab.news/yfqx3
Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer
- Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel
Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
