Luigi Mangione latest: Suspect’s mom realized son might be CEO shooter one day before arrest
Kathleen Mangione told investigators that her son resembled the Brian Thompson shooting suspect a day before he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania
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Luigi Mangione’s mother is said to have spoken to FBI officials one day before her son was arrested on suspicion of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Kathleen Mangione reportedly told federal investigators that her 26-year-old son – who was detained at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s last Monday – resembled the suspected shooter but said she wasn’t completely confident they were the same person, law enforcement sources told ABC news.
It comes as a top New York City attorney has been hired to represent Mangione as he faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with Thompson’s shooting death. Karen Friedman Agnifilo will be representing the suspect in New York, while he also faces gun charges in Pennsylvania and is currently fighting extradition to New York.
Agnifilo has worked in private practice since 2021 and has experience in New York City’s criminal justice system. She spent seven years as the chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Mangione’s supporters continue to donate thousands of dollars for “defense funds” with one committee raising almost $125,000 to pay for Mangione’s legal bills, as of Monday morning.
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Chief of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company admits US’s health care system is flawed
The chief of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company has acknowledged the public’s “frustrations” with the US’s health care system, which he admitted is flawed.
Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Friday: “We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it.”
His remarks come days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in an attack that was allegedly fuelled by hatred of the system.
Paying tribute to Mr Thompson as a “brilliant, kind man”, Mr Witty also pledged his company would help to fix the issues. “We are willing to partner with anyone, as we always have — health care providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments and others — to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs,” he said.
Mangione not under suicide watch
The suspect in the shooting is being held in his own cell under maximum security at Huntingdon Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania.
Luigi Mangione is not under suicide watch or in solitary confinement, according to CBS News. However, he does not get to interact with other inmates.
Mangione has not been violent while in jail, according to officials.
He is being held in a Pennsylvania jail pending his extradition to New York to face murder charges in connection to the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
No tips from Mangione’s family, cops say
NYPD officials said Luigi Mangione’s family did not send in any tips. That comes as their relative’s pictures were splashed all over news channels in the hours after the shooting.
Police said they received more than 200 tips as the manhunt for Mangione unfolded, but none came from family with the same name, according to USA Today.
It wasn’t until the suspect was spotted in Pennsylvania that police swooped in to make an arrest in the case, nearly a week after the killing.
UnitedHealthcare didn’t insure Luigi Mangione
UnitedHealth Group, the parent company to UntiedHealthcare, said that Luigi Mangione was not a client of the health insurance company.
There is no record that the 26-year-old shooting suspect was ever insured by the company, UnitedHealth Group told NBC News.
Police also confirmed that there is “no indication” that Mangione was registered with UnitedHealthcare, whose CEO was murdered on December 4 in Midtown Manhattan.
“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,” Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York.
Mangione’s defense fund surpasses $100k
More than $100,000 has been raised to pay for Luigi Mangione’s legal bills as he faces charges in both Pennsylvania and New York.
The December 4th Legal Committee launched the public appeal on Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo, which garnered the vast sum after the 26-year-old was changed in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday. The fundraiser has a goal of $200,000.
“We are dedicated to ensuring that he gets a fair trial with competent legal counsel,” said Carol Sherman, an organizer with the December 4th Legal Committee.
The group says that proceeds will go to “other political prisoners in the US” if Mangione’s charges are dropped, or he rejects the funds.
Police in California had IDed shooting suspect four days before arrest
California police had identified the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect as Luigi Mangione and alerted the FBI four days before he was eventually arrested in Pennsylvania, according to a report.
An officer in the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is said to have tipped off the bureau on December 5 after recognizing Mangione in images circulated by the NYPD, sources told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mangione had actually been on the radar of San Francisco authorities two weeks prior to the December 4 shooting of Brian Thompson.
Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, had reported her son missing on November 18 after the family had been unable to contact him since July 1, the sources told the Chronicle. An acquaintance told The New York Times the suspect had lost touch with friends and family after undergoing major surgery for debilitating, chronic back pain in July 2023.
Read the full story.
California police identified CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione days before arrest
Luigi Mangione’s mother had reported her son missing to California police two weeks before the shooting of Brian Thompson
UnitedHealth Group CEO admits healthcare system ‘doesn’t work as well as it should’
The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company to UnitedHealthcare, admitted that the US health system “doesn’t work as well as it should”.
Writing in a New York Times op-ed on Friday morning, Andrew Witty lamented the loss of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of United Healthcare, and addressed the US’s “patchwork” healthcare system.
The health insurance executive also wrote that he understood people’s frustrations with the health care system.
“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it,” he wrote. “No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades.”
He continued: “Our mission is to help make it work better. We are willing to partner with anyone, as we always have – health care providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments and others – to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs.
“Clearly, we are not there yet. We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization.”
Luigi Mangione’s family hired private investigator after he went missing, friend claims
Luigi Mangione’s family are said to have hired a private investigator to search for the Brian Thompson’s suspected murderer after he cut communication with friends and family late last year, a friend said.
A friend who allegedly studied alongside Mangione at The Gilman School claimed that he stopped contact with his family at the end of 2023.
“I did know he was having some issues,” a schoolfriend told the Daily Mail. “He wasn’t talking with his family, and nobody could find him.
“They hired a private investigator, they were so worried.”
The friend claimed they’d been told that Mangione had struggled with pain medication due to an injury stemming from an accident.
“There was some sort of accident. I knew he was hurt some time ago and that led to the painkiller thing, and then the whole family issue,” he said. “I can’t confirm what the issue specifically was, but I know that he was estranged.”
The Mail claims that another schoolmate said had heard of Mangione’s alleged use of pain medication due to a chronic spinal injury.
UnitedHealth Group CEO admits America’s health system is ‘flawed’
In a public response to the outpouring of rage against health insurance companies following the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company admitted America’s health care system “is flawed” as he mourned the loss of a “brilliant, kind man.”
In an op-ed titled “The health care system is flawed. Let’s fix it,” published in the New York Times on Friday, Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, wrote that he “understands people’s frustrations.”
The shocking case has prompted a wave of support for the suspect, Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with Thompson’s murder and is fighting extradition to New York, as Americans vent their frustrations with the state of health care.
“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it,” Witty said. “No one would design a system like the one we have.”
Rhian Lubin has the full story.
UnitedHealth Group CEO admits health system is ‘flawed’ after Brian Thompson’s murder
The shocking case has prompted a wave of support for the suspect, Luigi Mangione, as Americans vent their frustrations with the state of health care
What are Mangione’s jail conditions?
Mangione is being held in a small cell — 15 feet by six feet — with a bed, sink, toilet and a desk with a seat, Newsweek reported.
He “can look out the front of his cell where there is a window which provides natural light,” a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokesperson told the outlet.
The 26-year-old has eaten all of his three meals each day in his cell and is “not interacting with other inmates at this time,” the spokesperson said.