The 26-year-old Ivy League grad accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan avenue was carrying a pocket book that will lend additional perception into his mindset and alleged motivation, two sources conversant in the investigation stated Wednesday.
In it, Luigi Mangione allegedly wrote about wanting to focus on a CEO at a convention with a gun, and preferring that methodology to different means, like a bomb, to mitigate danger to others, in line with the sources.
They stated the pocket book had writings together with: “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents.”
He allegedly had the pocket book along with a three-page doc that stated partly, “frankly these parasites had it coming,” referencing the healthcare trade, a senior legislation enforcement official briefed on the case has stated.
Here’s a timeline of occasions main as much as and after the capturing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The senior official stated a day in the past the writings additionally embrace alleged claims the suspect acted alone within the killing of the 50-year-old government, who was gunned down as he walked to a midtown lodge the place UnitedHealthcare’s father or mother firm, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor convention per week in the past Wednesday.
One other line from the 300-word rant allegedly says, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done,” in line with the senior legislation enforcement official.
Investigators say the notice did particularly name out UnitedHealthcare, in addition to the broader healthcare trade in america and enormous companies on the whole, senior legislation enforcement officers stated. There are additionally considerations that the writings might trigger others to behave out in the same capability.
Due to the potential for it to set off a “contagion,” the homicide of Thompson resembles a home terror assault, in line with NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner.
“I think regardless of what the courts determine the motivation to be, the impact is similar to that of a domestic terror attack, and that is already being reflected in this torrent of online vitriol that we’ve been in the midst of since last Wednesday and the lionization of the alleged perpetrator of the murder as a hero,” Weiner said. “After we are involved about terrorism, it’s partly due to the outsized influence of a selected act of violence. This one has all of the hallmarks of one thing that’s going to encourage and contribute to the contagion impact.”
The feedback got here as disturbing “WANTED” posters concentrating on different healthcare executives had been seen put up in Manhattan.
Earlier Wednesday, a senior legislation enforcement official stated fingerprints taken from Mangione matched some discovered close to the midtown crime scene. Authorities had taken a number of key items of proof from the world within the hours after the capturing.
Roughly a half hour earlier than the capturing, video from a Starbucks location in midtown Manhattan confirmed the masked-up killer shopping for a bottle of water and a KIND bar. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that fingerprints from Mangione matched these on a KIND bar wrapper discovered close to the scene of the capturing.
The gun discovered on the suspect when he was arrested Monday was despatched to the NYPD, in line with Tisch. The division confirmed there was a ballistics-related match as properly, with shell casings from the scene of the capturing matching these discovered within the weapon.
Investigators are working to convey Mangione to New York Metropolis to face second-degree homicide costs in Thompson’s demise. He’s contesting extradition and plans to plead not responsible to costs in New York and Pennsylvania, his lawyer says.
At Tuesday’s extradition listening to, protection lawyer Thomas Dickey professed exterior court docket, “You can’t rush to judgment in this case or any case. He’s presumed innocent. Let’s not forget that…You have to presume him to be innocent. And none of us would want anything other than that if that were us in those shoes.”
WATCH: Suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter shout coming into courthouse: ‘It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American individuals’
