NYPD investigators have ascertained there is "no indication" suspected murderer Luigi Mangione "was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare" as they continue to probe for a motive in the point blank shooting of the company's CEO more than a week after he was killed on a Manhattan sidewalk.
"We have no indication that he was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America," NYPD Chief Joseph Kenny told WNBC-TV in an exclusive interview Thursday, alluding to 26-year-old Mangione's alleged manifesto. "So that's possibly why he targeted that company."
"He had prior knowledge that the conference was taking place on that date, at that location," said Kenny.
Upon his arrest at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald's on Monday, Mangione had on him a three-page, handwritten manifesto that reportedly described both his and his mother's chronic pain while blaming UnitedHealthcare, specifically, for his actions.
The manifesto reportedly contained phrases like "these parasites had it coming" and "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," a senior law enforcement officer familiar with the investigation told the station.
As part of his writings, the former Ivy League graduate claimed he acted alone when he shot 50-year-old Brian Thompson to death outside a Manhattan hotel Dec. 4 before the company's annual investors meeting. He wrote he ditched an earlier plan to use a bomb in his alleged assassination plot to avoid harming innocent bystanders, the Lawyer Herald previously reported.
"What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It's targeted, precise, and doesn't risk innocents," Mangione allegedly wrote, a law enforcement source said, according to WNBC.
"Frankly these parasites had it coming," he purportedly penned, referencing his disdain for the healthcare industry.
Mangione is being held on murder and weapons-related charges at State Correctional Institution Huntingdon in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
He plans to plead not guilty to the charges at his arraignment, his defense attorney said.
Earlier this week, Mangione refused to waive his extradition. As a result, prosecutors said it may take up to 45 days to get him back in New York.
