A man is being held for questioning after being detained in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
And while circumstances may suggest that the man — a 26-year-old named Luigi Mangione — might have killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last week, officials have yet to charge him with anything.
We can definitely see why the cops are interested, though. For one thing, Mangione reportedly had a handwritten "manifesto" on him that "criticized health care companies for putting profits above care," according to New York Times reporter Andy Newman.
The several-page document allegedly rails "against the health care industry" and suggests "that violence is the answer," a police official told CNN.
That aligns with the sentiments of three words found inscribed on shell casings recovered at the scene of the murder last week, which read "deny," "defend" and "depose." Rutgers University law scholar Jay Feinman used strikingly similar words in the title of a 2010 book that sharply critiqued the health insurance industry, titled "Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It."
Mangione also had a so-called "ghost gun" on him — meaning that it was cobbled together by various unserialized parts 3D-printed or bought online — and which cops say matches the gun used in the shooting. He also appears to have used the same fake New Jersey ID the killer used in Manhattan, they say.
Needless to say, it'll be fascinating to see the contents of the manifesto. Ever since the murder, questions have swirled about the killer's motivations, sparking a fiery debate online about a notoriously deficient private insurance industry in the US.
UnitedHealthcare has garnered a poor reputation even in a much-criticized industry, going as far as to develop an AI system to automatically deny claims for elderly patients, even if they'd already been approved by doctors.
A quick glance at Thompson's LinkedIn also reveals the fact that he had made plenty of enemies well before his death. His final LinkedIn posts are still filled with comments from people detailing their dreadful experiences with UnitedHealth, a real "horror show," as reporter Ken Klippenstein described it.
More on the killing: The Replies to the Murdered Insurance CEO's Final Social Media Post Are Chilling
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