The perpetrator who shot and killed Thompson, CEO of United Health Insurance Company under United Health Group, on the streets of the United States has been caught.
Suspect arrested for shooting CEO of United Health Insurance in the United States
On Monday, New York prosecutors accused Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione of murdering Brian Thompson, CEO of United Health Insurance, a subsidiary of United Health Group.
On Monday morning, at a McDonald's restaurant in central Pennsylvania, a staff member noticed that a customer who came to dine alone looked familiar and called the police. Soon, this person was detained by the police. This person's name is Luigi Mangione, 26 years old this year. The police suspect that he premeditated the murder of Thompson in Manhattan last week.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has charged 26 year old Manzoni with second degree murder, illegal possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a silencer, and forgery of documents.
Manzoni is accused of shooting Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan last Wednesday morning.
Thompson, who is 50 years old and the father of two children, was on his way to attend an investor conference for United Health Group at the time of the incident. At that time, he was shot by a masked gunman holding a handgun suspected to have a silencer.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that the gunman had been ambushing for several minutes prior to the attack and carried out a "carefully considered and pre planned targeted attack".
The shell casings found on site were marked with words such as' delay ',' deny ', and' dispose '. The first two words are sometimes used to describe the strategy of health insurance companies (such as Thompson's company) to restrict customer benefit payments.
United Health Group is the largest private health insurance company in the United States, with annual revenue exceeding $200 billion.
According to reports, Manzoni has a doctor sister who has been suffering from chronic back pain for many years. His profile on social media X displayed an X-ray image of his spine with screws.
According to New York City Police Department Inspector Joseph Kenny, in addition to seizing a homemade "ghost" gun (a black 3D printed handgun), a 3D printed suppressor, and a forged New Jersey ID card, the police also found a handwritten three page letter on him on Monday, which involved the medical industry. Kenny said, 'It seems that he does have some kind of malice towards the American business community,' but did not elaborate on the content of the letter.
According to a criminal indictment by Pennsylvania police, Manzoni was found sitting in the back of a McDonald's restaurant, wearing a medical mask and a laptop in front of her. When a police officer asked him if he had been to New York recently, he fell silent and began to tremble.
The police stated that when Manzoni was asked to remove his hood at McDonald's, they immediately recognized him as a wanted person by New York authorities in connection with the Thompson shooting.
At the time of his arrest, he provided the police with a fake New Jersey ID card, believed to have been used when he checked into a hotel in Manhattan in late November.
High achieving students from elite schools
Manzoni comes from a wealthy family in the Baltimore area and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 with a bachelor's and master's degree.
For some people, if Manzoni is indeed the murderer, he represents a folk hero and reflects the collective anger of the public towards the flaws in the insurance industry; But in the eyes of others, he has become a symbol of the collapse of law and order and moral breakdown in a country, with company executives becoming scapegoats for systemic inequality and paying a fatal price as a result.
According to multiple sources, it appears that Manzoni came from a wealthy family in Maryland, which involved multiple business sectors. He attended the renowned Gilman School in Baltimore and graduated as a graduate speaker in 2016. In his speech, Manzoni emphasized the innovative spirit of his classmates. However, having great ideas alone is not enough. The innovative spirit of the 2016 cohort also stems from their extraordinary courage to explore the unknown and try new things, "he said in his speech
The principal of Baltimore Gilman School has confirmed that Manzoni graduated from this all male private school in 2016 with a tuition fee of up to $38000. A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania stated that a student named Luigi Manzoni obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science and minored in Mathematics from this Ivy League university in May 2020.
In the summer before graduation, he served as the chief counselor and AI assistant at Stanford University, designing course plans and teaching high school students. According to his LinkedIn account, his job includes supervising over thirty students and creating a "inclusive, fun, and inspiring" community atmosphere among dormitory staff.
Manzoni started working as a data engineer at TrueCar in November 2020 and received his first promotion less than a year later. By October 2022, he will have become a Data Engineer III, responsible for over ten technologies, handling leasing and loan payments, pricing data sources, and performance tracking.
When Manzoni was arrested, some clues about his life were revealed on social media. On Goodreads, Manzoni published a positive review of Theodore Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and Its Future" in June 2021. Kaczynski caused 3 deaths and over 20 injuries through homemade bombs between 1978 and 1995.
Manzoni wrote that simply viewing this book as a 'madman's manifesto' is a way to escape facing problems, but 'many of its predictions about modern society have clearly become a reality'.
His Goodreads account displays at least five books about chronic back pain and fitness, while his social media banner features a lower back X-ray image showing spinal screws inserted, which are typically used during surgery.
According to reports, such surgeries are often ineffective and controversial. Some studies suggest that pain may naturally subside over time, but insurance companies strictly limit the use of certain surgeries and medications, which can lead to serious complications.
This case has raised concerns about the safety of insurance industry enterprises. Health insurance company executives have stated that companies and their leaders are often threatened or sued by customers due to issues such as high fees or claims being denied.
On Monday night, social media was filled with praise for Manzoni, and # FreeLuigi quickly climbed to the top of Twitter's hot search list, sparking discussions on Instagram. At the same time, McDonald's received a large number of one star negative reviews, some of which criticized "employees who betray class," while others called Giorgio Armani "one of the smartest minds of this generation.