Luigi Mangione latest: Top NY attorney tapped by defense as new details emerge on how suspect fled to Pennsylvania

The fallout from the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brain Thompson has led to a tumble in stock values for major insurance companies.

Thompson was shot and killed by a masked gunman, suspected to be 26-year-old Luigi Mangione a week ago in what is believed to be a targeted attack apparently based in part on grievances with the U.S. health insurance system.

The shocking nature of the shooting has shined a glaring spotlight on the worst parts of health insurance companies’ policies leading to a small anti-health insurance company movement online.

Police previously thought that the suspect boarded a bus to Pennsylvania, where he was eventually caught on Monday. Cops said they believed the shooter had stopped off at different locations around the state.

But according to the New York Post, that’s no longer the case.

Investigators said they thought the suspect had taken a bus because he was seen on surveillance video at the George Washington Bridge bus station. Now, they think he took the subway from the bus station to Penn Station and bought a train ticket to Pennsylvania before he was caught, CBS News and ABC News reported, citing police sources. 

Kathleen Mangione was contacted by federal investigators the night before her son was arrested and told them he looked like the person in the photos released by the New York City Police Department, according to the NY Post.

The FBI had received a tip from San Francisco police after an official in California said he recognized the man in the pictures and tipped off federal authorities. Members of the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force then spoke to Mangione’s mother about her son, asking her about a missing person’s report her family had filed in November.

According to The Post, the man’s mother wasn’t completely confident that was actually her son in the images.

A poll released on Friday reveals that young Americans are more likely to favor the suspected killer over his alleged victim.

The Center for Strategic Politics reported that out of 455 adults surveyed on December 11, 31 percent of adults under 45 were nearly four times as likely to view Mangione favorably. That’s compared to only 16 percent who saw Brian Thompson favorably.

Here, The Independent takes a look at what we know about Ms Agnifilo:

A group of partygoers in Boston reportedly cheered when a DJ put a photo of Luigi Mangione on a big screen.

The New York Police Department issued a bulletin on Tuesday warning that health insurance executives might be at risk after “wanted” posters featuring their images and salaries appeared around Manhattan.

The bulletin comes in the wake of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.

The NYPD suggested that Luigi Mangione, the 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of shooting Thompson, may be viewed as a “martyr” by some, and could inspire other attacks.

The bulletin notes that the shooter’s actions could have the “capability to inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence,” which was first reported by ABC News.

Graig Graziosi has the full story.

Luigi Mangione’s family are said to have hired a private investigator to search for Brian Thompson’s suspected murderer after he cut communication with friends and family late last year, a friend said.

A friend who allegedly studied alongside Mangione at The Gilman School claimed that he stopped contact with his family at the end of 2023.

“I did know he was having some issues,” a schoolfriend told the Daily Mail. “He wasn’t talking with his family, and nobody could find him.

“They hired a private investigator, they were so worried.”

The friend claimed they’d been told that Mangione had struggled with pain medication due to an injury stemming from an accident.

“There was some sort of accident. I knew he was hurt some time ago and that led to the painkiller thing, and then the whole family issue,” he said. “I can’t confirm what the issue specifically was, but I know that he was estranged.”

The Mail claims that another schoolmate said had heard of Mangione’s alleged use of pain medication due to a chronic spinal injury.