Killing of Brian Thompson / protest against the U.S. healthcare system
Brian Thompson, CEO of the American UnitedHealthcare company since 2021, was shot and killed outside an entrance to the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan, New York City, on December 4, 2024.
Thompson was in the city to attend an annual investors’ meeting for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare. He had been criticized for UnitedHealthcare’s rejection of insurance claims, and his family reported that he had received death threats in the past. The shooting occurred early in the morning, and the suspect, initially described as a white man wearing a mask, fled the scene. A suspect, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested five days later and charged with the crime. Thompson’s death received reactions of online contempt and mockery from many Americans towards him and UnitedHealth Group. More broadly, many Americans criticized the U.S. healthcare system. Many social media users characterized the killing as deserved or justified; these attitudes relate to anger over UnitedHealth’s business practices and those of the United States health insurance industry at large – primarily their strategies to deny coverage to clients. In particular, Thompson’s death was compared to the harm or death experienced by clients who were denied healthcare.
Luigi Mangione, age 26, was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 2024, and charged with Thompson’s murder in a Manhattan court the same day. Authorities said Mangione was carrying a 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed suppressor consistent with those used in the attack, as well as handwritten notes characterized as a manifesto criticizing America’s healthcare system, a U.S. passport, and multiple fraudulent IDs, including one with the same name the alleged shooter used to check into a hostel in Manhattan. They also said his fingerprints matched those that investigators found near the New York shooting scene. Mangione was held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. Mangione also has an arrest warrant with five felony counts in New York including second-degree murder. Mangione’s lawyer said he will plead not guilty to the charges. Police believe that he was inspired by Ted Kaczynski’s essay Industrial Society and Its Future; Mangione wrote that he considered the essay prescient in a Goodreads review.
Luigi’s Manifesto
Luigi Mangione was charged with murder – then donations started pouring in
