Luigi Mangione's motive for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO is coming into focus, NYPD says
NEW YORK -- While there are still many investigative leads to follow up on, top NYPD officials say they are now getting a clearer picture of Luigi Mangione, the suspect in last week's killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
They told CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer on Tuesday they believe they now better understand the accused's motives, his methods and the reasons that allegedly drove him to plot the shooting.
Suspect described as a careful and complicated man
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny and Rebecca Weiner, the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, talked about the arrest of Mangione. They said investigators found many things that will play into the case, including a fake ID and a device called a Faraday Bag that helped prevent police from tracing him.
"You can put your phone in there so we can't track your phone. It doesn't transmit a signal. It blocks the signal," Kenny said. "In essence, it's like if you wrapped your phone in aluminum foil and put it in a bag."
They said Mangione was a careful and complicated man who planned the attack carefully and apparently made the murder weapon and the suppressor believed to have been used in the shooting, himself. They said he apparently ordered a receiver — the bottom part of a ghost gun — from an online site and may have had it delivered to his home in San Francisco. They say he made the rest of the gun with a 3D printer, adding the silencer was homemade as well.
What about the motive?
There are things police know and things they are still working through, including the motive. They said they think it has, in part, something to do with an injury Mangione suffered.
"We're learning that he did possibly suffer an accident that caused him to visit the emergency room back on July 4, 2023," Kenny said.
The officials said the two-and-a-half-page handwritten document that was recovered in his backpack by Altoona, Pennsylvania police also made it clear that Mangione was furious at the health care industry. Authorities say the document will help tie him to the crime.
"When you start using rhetoric like 'These parasites had it coming,' you are referencing an anti-corporatist mentality that goes beyond an individual grievance toward a particular injury he may have suffered," Weiner said.
And then there is Mangione's apparent fixation with the "Unabomber," Ted Kaczynski. Weiner said investigators found an online review of his book by Mangione that they say sets out "in his view, violence can be justified to right social wrongs. So this was an endorsement of Ted Kaczynski and his book."
Kramer asked Weiner, "So, do you think he felt that he was justified in, what you said, 'righting the wrongs?'"
"That is going to be the subject of inquiry for the detectives," Weiner said.
NYPD officials say they're concerned that Mangione could inspire wider violence.
"There are also posters that we've seen online and in New York with various CEOs' pictures on them ... These are perceived threats, and it is important for everybody to know that we will take these threats very seriously," Weiner said.
Lots of forensic evidence
Officials say they were able to act quickly to identify Mangione as the alleged shooter through a lot of forensic evidence.
"We have DNA. We have one ... we have fingerprints that's also being processed," Kenny said, adding, "There were no fingerprints on the bullets at this time, but we did have one fingerprint on the cellphone that was recovered."