No signs Luigi Mangione was a UnitedHealthcare client, NY police say: Updates

Editor's note: This page is a summary of news on the arrest of Luigi Mangione in connection with the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson for Thursday, Dec. 12. For developments on the CEO's death investigation, visit USA TODAY's article on the case for Friday, Dec. 13.

As the man charged in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson remained in a Pennsylvania prison without bail Thursday, police officials in New York are learning as they share more information about the brazen killing.

It does not appear that accused killer Luigi Mangione, who told friends and wrote on social media about his struggles with debilitating back pain, had health insurance with the company, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York.

Mangione's back issues and the disdain he had expressed in writing for UnitedHealthcare raised questions of whether he'd had negative interactions with the health insurance giant.

"We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America. So that's possibly why he targeted that company,'' Kenny told the news outlet, adding that Mangione knew when and where Thompson would be attending an investors conference in Manhattan.

Kenny told the network Mangione seems to have endured an accident that caused him a "life-changing injury'' requiring emergency care in July 2023, ''and that's what may have put him on this path."

The department's head detective said police have a better idea now of Mangione's whereabouts before and after allegedly shooting Thompson on Dec. 4.

The latter includes riding an e-bike to Central Park and taking a cab to Washington Heights, then a subway to Penn Station, from where he traveled to Philadelphia, Kenny said. Police still don't know how Mangione reached Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at a McDonald's. He had more than $5,000 in $100 bills with him at the time, Kenny said, and "everything he did he was paying for in cash.''

More: CEO shooting suspect left winding trail of Reddit posts about health issues

Lawyer says evidence may not be reliable

Mangione, 26, has been tied to the scene of the shooting through fingerprints and a match between the gun found when police arrested him in Pennsylvania and shell casings on the Manhattan street where Thompson was killed, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Mangione's attorney, Thomas Dickey, said his client will plead not guilty to all the charges against him and fight extradition to New York, where a second-degree murder charge is looming. In a CNN interview Wednesday, Dickey said he wanted to see the fingerprints and ballistics evidence.

“Those two sciences in and of themselves have come under some criticism in the past, relative to their credibility, their truthfulness, their accuracy,” Dickey told the outlet. He said his office will have experts look at the evidence before "we would challenge its admissibility and challenge the accuracy of those results.”

Investigators said when police arrested Mangione after a tipster recognized him at the McDonald's in Altoona they found writings on the suspect that expressed an "ill will toward corporate America'' and included "admissions about the crime."

More: In Luigi Mangione's Maryland hometown, questions swirl about an unlikely murder suspect

Mangione's extradition to NY likely 'inevitable'

When a person is accused of committing a crime in one state and is detained in another, the state in which the alleged crime occurred has the right to request the fugitive be handed over for trial. This common legal procedure is called interstate extradition.

During this procedure, which often occurs without complication, the governor of the state seeking the suspect would sign a warrant describing the alleged crime. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said this week she will sign a warrant so Mangione is “tried and held accountable.”

The suspect then has the right to a hearing to challenge the validity of the charges, which Mangione’s attorney has suggested he will request. It’s unlikely a challenge would prevent Mangione’s extradition to New York, David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told USA TODAY.

“Bottom line is that this defendant will face charges in New York,” Harris said. “His extradition will delay things, probably 30 to 45 days, four to six weeks, in that range. But it will not stop the inevitable.”

Did Luigi Mangione's family recognize him? Police investigating tips

It remains unclear if Mangione's family recognized him from the various surveillance images released by the New York Police Department in the wake of the shooting and before his arrest.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told Fox News that none of the more than 200 tips to the NYPD named Mangione.

In an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry were asked whether Mangione's family or friends had come forward and reported him to law enforcement.

"Post-arrest investigation here, I think all these things will be asked and answered in time,” Chell said.

Daughtry said the NYPD received more than 400 tips and that police were "still vetting" each of them.

Where is Luigi Mangione being held?

Since Monday evening, Mangione has been held at the State Correctional Institution Huntingdon, the oldest state prison in Pennsylvania.

The prison, located between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, has a population of 1,853, and was at 99% capacity as of Nov. 30, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Maria A. Bivens, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said Mangione's in a single 15x6-feet cell but not in solitary confinement. She added that Mangione is not yet interacting with other inmates and has taken all his meals in his cell.

"He will eventually get out of cell time. All inmates are afforded time outside of their cells, even if they are a higher custody level," she told USA TODAY via e-mail, adding that the facility has common/day room areas with TV sets and inmates can buy their own TVs as well.

SCI Huntingdon, once a maximum-security prison and now a close-security facility, has 14 housing units and employs around 660 full-time workers. The prison employs around 212 inmates through its warehouse, print shop, sign shop, garment shop and a soap and detergent shop, according to the state.

More than $55K in donations for Luigi Mangione's legal costs

Though Mangione comes from a wealthy and prominent family in the Baltimore area, anonymous online donors have chipped in thousands of dollars to fund his legal defense.

One fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo had raised more than $55,000 as of Thursday afternoon and has a goal of $200,000. The New Jersey-based fund was created by a newly formed "December 4th Legal Committee," possibly referencing the date of the shooting.

Representatives from GiveSendGo told USA TODAY multiple campaigns have been created for Mangione, including a smaller fundraiser that was unpublished Wednesday. Other social media pages have linked to Mangione's prison commissary account soliciting donations for "snacks, sodas, an iPad, etc."

Dickey, Mangione's lawyer, did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on the matter, but told CNN he "probably wouldn't" accept donations to pay his client's legal costs.

– N'dea Yancey-Bragg and Nick Penzenstadler

More: People donated $30K to Luigi Mangione's defense as experts warn donors to be careful

Insurers beef up security after UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

Some companies are reevaluating their security measures in the wake of Thompson's shooting. A number of companies have scrubbed their websites of top executives’ biographies and photographs. Others are closing offices or canceling in-person events.

Matthew Peters, vice president of protective services at security provider Guidepost Solutions, said phone calls have "at least quadrupled" since Thompson's killing, and companies from "every single industry" are reevaluating their security programs, especially security around in-person events like investor meetings and holiday parties.

The added security comes as law enforcement agencies across the country are on alert for copycat actors targeting other executives. Chicago police, for example, launched an investigation after someone spray-painted "Kill your CEO" on multiple businesses over the weekend, according to reporting from local news stations.

This week, police in Lakeland, Florida, arrested a woman who allegedly ended a phone call to an insurance provider with the words "delay, deny, depose" – referencing the words reportedly written on the shell casings found at the scene of last week's shooting in Manhattan, WFLA reported. The woman, who told police she was denied coverage, was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, according to Polk County's court website.

– Bailey Schulz

More: Insurers increase security after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killing

Lawyer Thomas Dickey on Luigi Mangione's outburst: 'He is irritated'

As deputies escorted Mangione into the Blair County Courthouse for an extradition hearing Tuesday, video captured the suspect turn to reporters and scream phrases including "Completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people." Additional remarks shouted by Mangione were inaudible.

In an interview with CNN, Dickey said the outburst was likely a result of "frustration [at] being a young man thrown in jail and being accused of very serious matters."

"About this outrage, he is irritated, agitated about what's happening to him and what he's being accused of," Dickey said, adding that he had not met Mangione when his client made those comments outside the courthouse.

"Now he has a spokesperson and someone who is going to fight for him," he told the outlet. "And so I think you'll see a big difference in the demeanor."

More: Video captures CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione yelling at media while entering court

Luigi Mangione's Reddit posts about health issues

Mangione appears to have posted on the site Reddit under the username “Mister_Cactus." On the platform, he references his health problems and a bevy of symptoms that impaired his day-to-day function spanning more than a decade.

His pain began in January 2022, he posted. In July 2023, he said his “back and hips locked up after the accident and my whole lumbar / hips have been out of wack (sic) since then.” He also wrote that he had suffered bladder and genital pain, back pain and sciatica after the back injury. He started to have numbness in his groin and bladder and below the right knee, one post said.

In a thread where another user asked for advice about surgery on the lumbosacral joint known as L5-S1, the username tied to Mangione wrote about his own procedure: “The surgery wasn't nearly as scary as I made it out to be in my head, and I knew it was the right decision within a week.”

In other Reddit posts from "Mister_Cactus," he referenced health battles with Lyme disease as a teenager and "brain fog" that accompanied it. He missed soccer tryouts when he contracted Lyme disease at 13 and didn’t make the team, then started noticing “mild cognitive decline” when he was 15, he posted. He said his symptoms severely worsened in 2017, when he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, but additional tests for Lyme disease were negative.

In July 2018 he posted about having restless sleep and in August that year he posted in a group about irritable bowel syndrome, asking for advice about a change in diet to improve his condition.

Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz, Chris Kenning, Natalie Neysa Alund and Dinah Voyles Pulver

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No indication Luigi Mangione was a UnitedHealthcare client