Following Luigi Mangione’s arrest in the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, authorities in the US heralded his capture as “good old-fashioned police work” that brought an end to a manhunt that had stunned America and the world.
It had been a period of high drama and blanket media coverage. In the days that passed since Thompson was fatally shot on a Manhattan sidewalk by an unknown assailant on 4 December, police tracked down surveillance footage allegedly revealing the still-unidentified Mangione’s face and widely distributed a now notorious still of him appearing to smile at a hostel, all in an attempt to find the fugitive.
