Luigi Mangione latest: Police match gun and fingerprints to CEO murder scene

Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO gunman Luigi Mangione repeatedly spoke of his anger at the healthcare system on Reddit, according to archived post.

Mangione, who had a spinal fusion surgery in 2023, complained on the site that medical authorities didn’t take people’s pain seriously, The Washington Post reports.

“Tell them you are ‘unable to work’ / do your job,” he wrote in one post. “We live in a capitalist society. I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”

In another post, he told readers they could fake difficulty using their feet to convince doctors to give them back surgery.

“This is the absolute nuclear option, but there comes a point where it’s just ridiculous that people won’t operate on your broken spine,” he said.

The Luigi Mangione case keeps getting stranger.

The alleged gunman who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has retained a lawyer, but the attorney, Thomas Dickey, has declined to say who hired him.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna comment,” he told CNN.

Nationwide fundraisers have sought to funnel funds for Mangione’s legal defense.

“The Daily Show” is mocking conservatives for criticizing Luigi Mangione for his alleged vigilante-style shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, despite the same figures previously praising armed civilian Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men during unrest after the police shooting of a Black man.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez struck a measured tone on Wednesday when asked about the recent shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, warning of the “chaos” of vigilante-style attacks but saying the shooting reflected widespread disatisfaction over the state of U.S. healthcare.

“Of course, we don’t want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents,” she told Business Insider on Wednesday. “And we also don’t want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family’s lives.”

The New York Democrat added that she personally didn’t have consistent healthcare until she was elected to Congress, and that shooting is a “wake up call” for people’s widespread suffering in the U.S. health system.

A person walking their dog in New York City’s Central Park on Tuesday found a bag of bullets in the bushes, but the ammo does not appear linked to the recent UnitedHealthcare shooting, according to Fox 5 New York, citing unnamed sources.

The bag initially piqued their interest because alleged gunman Luigi Mangione fled through police after the shooting last week, according to police.

UnitedHealth executives are reportedly rallying the company after the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson has revealed widespread animosity towards the healthcare industry.

“Never forget: What you do matters. It really, really matters,” CEO Andrew Witty reportedly told staff, according to a leaked memo obtained by journalist Ken Klippenstein. “There is no higher calling than helping people. Nothing more vital to the human condition than health care. And while these days have been dark, our patients, members, customers are sending us light — thousands of phone calls, texts, comments and emails offering condolences, gratitude and encouragement are pouring in.”

Mainstream crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has repeatedly shut down fundraisers seeking to send money for Luigi Mangione’s legal defense, but that hasn’t stopped supporters of the alleged killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO to pool funds elsewhere.

A group calling itself the December 4th Legal Committee has raised over $35,000 on Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, a platform that’s previously been used to raise money for January 6 rioters, Kyle Rittenhouse, and Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted in the 2023 Manhattan choking death of Jordan Neely.

“We are not here to celebrate violence, but we do believe in the constitutional right of fair legal representation,” the group wrote of its efforts on the fundraiser page.

A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League institution UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione attended, is retracting her social media posts that appeared to praise him.

Julia Alekseyeva, an Assistant Professor of English and Cinema and Media Studies, posted a TikTok video on Monday night swaying her left index finger back and forth to the tune of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Misérables.

She wrote: “Have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.” The post appeared to refer to Mangione’s prior attendance at the university, where he obtained undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. He also worked as a teaching assistant at the university after graduation.

Michelle Del Rey has the full story.

Investigators announced finding their first forensic ties between Luigi Mangione and the Midtown murder scene.

Shell casings — marked with the words “deny,” “defend,” “depose” — that were found at the crime scene matched the gun that was seized during the suspect’s arrest Monday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday.

Lab results also showed that Mangione’s fingerprints matched the prints on a watter bottle and a Kind bar wrapper near the scene, she said.

Luigi Mangione struggled with police and shouted about an “insult to the American people” as officers forcibly led him into a Pennsylvania courtroom for an extradition hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The 26-year-old, who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection to last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was denied bail at the hearing and is fighting extradition back to New York.

He appeared at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg in the afternoon in handcuffs and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.

“It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” Mangione shouted after stepping out of a police car.

He was flanked by several officers who pushed him towards the door.

Rhian Lubin has the full story.