The assassination of an insurance company CEO

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Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in last week's deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to court documents filed Monday night. The 26-year-old, who was identified earlier as a person of interest, was arrested on firearms and other charges in Pennsylvania after being spotted at a McDonald's in Altoona amid a massive manhunt for the shooter.

Here's what we know about Mangione:

Luigi Mangione identified as suspect in CEO shooting
Officers in Altoona arrested Mangione on unrelated charges at a McDonald's there after a customer alerted an employee who called police, officials said. "A Pennsylvania resident saw something early this morning at McDonald's and said something to our local police," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said, praising the resident as "a hero."

The officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously, Tisch said.

According to court documents, the Altoona officers found Mangione sitting at a table in the back of the McDonald's wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop with a backpack on the floor near the table. When the officers asked him to pull the mask down, they recognized him from photos released to the media.

Mangione was carrying multiple fraudulent IDs and a U.S. passport, Tisch said. One of the IDs matched the fake New Jersey ID that the shooting suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the shooting, the commissioner said.

When the Altoona officers asked Mangione for his ID at the McDonald's, he gave them the New Jersey ID, according to an affidavit submitted with a criminal complaint. When one officer was checking the ID with dispatchers, the other asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, and Mangione "became quiet and started to shake," according to the affidavit.

"That really invoked a physical reaction from the suspect," Altoona Deputy Police Chief Derek Swope told reporters Monday night. "He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking at that question, and he didn't really answer it directly, so that statement alone really said a lot, and the suspect didn't have to say a lot after that question to show that, you know, he was very nervous at that point."

Officers found a gun and a suppressor that were consistent with the weapon used in the Dec. 4 shooting of Thompson, Tisch said. Police said the gun found in his backpack appeared to be a 3D-printed ghost gun, with a loaded Glock magazine with six nine-millimeter full metal jacket rounds. Clothing and a mask consistent with those of the suspect in the case were also recovered, police said.

Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said Mangione was initially cooperative and then stopped cooperating with investigators. He wasn't aware of Mangione having a criminal history.

At an extradition proceeding on Tuesday afternoon, Mangione was denied bail. He is contesting extradition, and Pennsylvania has 30 days to get a warrant from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to start the process. A defense attorney for Mangione argued that the state of New York did not provide the defense with the official second-degree murder charges in documents they were given and now the defense has 14 days to request a writ of habeas corpus for those.

Police say Mangione had handwritten note expressing views
A handwritten document that "speaks to both his motivation and mindset" was also recovered from Mangione when he was apprehended by police, according to Tisch.

In the three-page note, Mangione attempted to justify his actions, police said. NYPD sources referred to the notes as a claim of responsibility.

Mangione wrote that the U.S. had "most expensive healthcare system in the world" but lamented that the country "ranks #42 in life expectancy," according to NYPD sources. Intelligence officers within the NYPD believe Mangione's grievances about UnitedHealthcare and other health insurance companies motivated the murder, NYPD sources said.

Mangione also referred to corporations as "mafiosa [that] have gotten too powerful," and said such companies abuse the United States "for immense profit." He wrote that others had shone a light on corporations' "corruption and greed" in the past and claimed that he was "the first to face it with such brutal honesty."

NYPD intelligence officers believe Mangione might have been inspired by "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, with the handwritten note reflecting a similar mindset.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters that officials "don't think that there's any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document," but NYPD sources said police are concerned about the risk of extremists viewing Mangione as an example to follow. Shapiro expressed this concern in his Monday remarks, and strongly condemned both the murder and those who celebrated it online.

He worked at TrueCar, has Ivy League degree
According to his LinkedIn account, Mangione worked as a data engineer at the car-buying website TrueCar. But a company spokesperson told CBS News that Mangione hasn't worked there since 2023.

Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, a Penn spokesperson confirmed to CBS News. He received a Master of Science in engineering with a major in computer and information science, and a Bachelor of Science in engineering, majoring in computer science with a minor in mathematics, the spokesperson confirmed.

While at Penn, he worked as a teaching assistant and founded a video game development club, according to his LinkedIn account.

At Stanford University in California, Mangione was a head counselor for a pre-collegiate studies program during the summer of 2019, the university said in a statement to CBS News.

He has ties to Honolulu
Mangione's last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kenny told reporters. According to an Instagram video posted by the Surfbreak coliving community, Mangione had been living there at some point.

Sarah Nehemiah, who knew Mangione during his time living at a co-living/working space called Surfbreak in Honolulu, said he left the community in April 2022 due to a lifelong back injury exacerbated by physical activity on the island.

"Mangione lived at Surfbreak from January 2022 until April of that year. It was our understanding that he left due to a lifelong back injury that was exacerbated by surfing and hiking. To our knowledge, nearly all members of Surfbreak from his tenure lost contact after he left. To our knowledge, he did return to Hawaii briefly in early 2023 and started a book club. Several members left due to discomfort in book choices," said Nehemiah, who says she is now acting as a spokesperson for several members of the community.

A second source familiar with Mangione's stay at Surfbreak said back pain was a major theme of his life at that time. He tried to surf in Hawaii and was not able to. This appeared to be a source of pain and frustration for him, said the source.

He's related to a prominent Maryland family
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, Kenny said. He is related to a prominent Maryland family that owns country clubs, health care facilities and real estate companies, CBS News Baltimore reported. He's also a cousin of Maryland state Delegate Nino Mangione, who represents parts of Baltimore County.

Mangione's paternal grandparents, Nicholas and Mary Mangione, were real estate developers who purchased the Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley in 1986.

They founded Lorien Health Systems in 1977, and operated WCBM, a Baltimore radio station. Luigi Mangione volunteered at Lorien Health Systems in 2014 while in high school, according to his LinkedIn.

He was valedictorian at the Gilman School in Baltimore
Mangione graduated in 2016 from the Gilman School, an all-boys private school in Baltimore, according to his LinkedIn account. He was valedictorian for achieving the highest cumulative GPA over four years, according to his LinkedIn page. He captained the Gilman robotics team and also received a scholarship prize in 2014.

James Sandberg, a former classmate of Mangione, told CBS Baltimore that, while he wasn't "particularly close" with Mangione, he knew him "somewhat well" and said, "He was a nice kid."

Sandberg said he was "shocked" after someone shared an article naming Mangione as a person of interest in the shooting.

"Thought it was maybe a different Luigi Mangione," Sandberg said.

Another former classmate, who wishes to remain anonymous out of respect for the Mangione family, told CBS News the two met in middle school and were close throughout high school.

"He was a nice guy, a smart guy. I wouldn't characterize him as introverted or extroverted. He didn't have any enemies," the former classmate said. "He was our valedictorian for a reason."

When they heard about the news of Mangione being a person of interest, the former classmate said they felt sympathetic to the situation.

"I don't think he is a crazy person," the former classmate said. "I hope that there's a public trial and he gets the chance to explain how all of this happened in court."

The former classmate said the two lost touch after high school, but they remember Mangione being a "good guy."

People sent him messages on social media before his arrest
In the months leading up to Mangione's arrest, posts tagging his account on the social media platform X indicate his friends may have been trying to contact him.

"Nobody has heard from you in months," one post from October read.

Another post from July read, "I don't know if you are okay or just in a super isolated place and have no service. But I haven't heard from you in months."

He had an account on Goodreads
On the Goodreads website, Mangione's account contained a four-star rating and review of "Industrial Society and Its Future," written by Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Two health care-related books are on his read tab from 2022, including "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery" and "Back Mechanic."

Mangione's X account reposted the quote, "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society," by J. Krishnamurti at least twice, most recently in January 2024.

I quit reddit (again) in disgust because so many people were posting Hoorays and things like that celebrating the murder.

I think the murder was vile. The murderer shot a man in the back in cold blood. I don't think there is any political discussion to be made about that. The fact that people on the internet justify the murder tells me a lot about them and about their values.

It is probably true that most people would murder other people if they felt they could get away with it, and even for the pettiest motives. I don't think morality lasts very long after a person decides to rationalize things in their own mind.

You can rationalize the murder of anybody for any reason if you think about it long enough. It is very easy to do. It does not require a lot of energy or time.

Rationalization is a slippery slope.

At any rate, one thing I can tell you is that more people are going to be packing as a result of this entire situation.

Perhaps it is inevitable, people kill each other more to the population pressures, in the end we must become our own predator.

If you look at human history through the lens of a mad dictator such as Putin or Kim, or even the now-deposed Assad, someone that does not really care about human life at all (but no one dares to assassinate)...if you look at the world through their lens, a 99.8% population reduction would be a tonic for the world, solving a lot of problems including pollution, national rivalries and climate change. So you see, not only murder can be rationalized, but global thermonuclear war as well.

Even if the perpetrator somehow manages not to get caught,

Are you saying that the murderer was not Mangione?

No, I was just generalizing about some of the reasons why I think assassinations are a very bad political tactic.

Assassinating insurance company CEOs is not the solution to the U.S.A.'s health care crisis.

Acts to inspire class solidarity are a good idea, but I think it would have been much better if Luigi Mangione had used his imagination to come up with some good attention-getting act of nonviolent civil disobedience. Perhaps some clever, imaginative graffiti art on insurance company office buildings?

A New York Police Department bulletin issued Tuesday emphasized the heightened risk environment for health care executives following last week's brazen killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Viral posts online have listed the names and salaries of several health insurance executives, multiple "Wanted" signs featuring corporate executives have been posted throughout Manhattan and users on social media continue to celebrate Thompson's death, according to the bulletin.

The warning signs come as a sea of social media posts indicate that shooting suspect Luigi Mangione might be viewed as a "martyr" who could inspire extremists to action.

With Mangione's action having the "capability to inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence," the NYPD encouraged companies to increase precautions and security for executives.

Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania Monday and faces charges in New York including second-degree murder.

"Both prior to and after the suspected perpetrator's identification and arrest, some online users across social media platforms reacted positively to the killing, encouraged future targeting of similar executives, and shared conspiracy theories regarding the shooting," the bulletin said.

The bulletin highlighted a viral social media post featuring the names and salaries of eight health insurance CEOs, which some online users shared "emphasizing that it is a hitlist and that CEOs should be afraid," according to the bulletin. The "Wanted" posters in Manhattan included the images of corporate executives and bullet-shaped graphics warning, "UnitedHealthcare killed everyday people for the sake of profit. As a result Brian Thompson was denied his claim to life. Who will be denied next?"" and "Wall Street CEOs Should Not Feel Safe, Deny, Defend, Depose."

The NYPD bulletin also included multiple examples of individuals expressing their belief online that Thompson fully deserved to be murdered based on his role in the insurance industry.

I just hope the class solidarity lasts instead of immediately reverting back to everyone at each other's throats.

It's just freakishly stupid. Imagine how the American public would have reacted if the victim had been non-white or female. Of if the killer hadn't been white. Then the media circus would be full of outrage.

An act of hatred and violence has supposedly brought Americans together temporarily. What a shock.