Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gave an apparent confession of the shooting in his handwritten manifesto, according to a report.
“To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” Mangione wrote in the 262-word note, according to The New York Times.
The note also criticized companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it” and singled out UnitedHealthcare to note that while the insurer’s profits have grown, American life expectancy has not increased, according to The Times.
Mangione goes on to rail in his manifesto about the disparity between America’s wealth and the quality of its health care, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday.
“I had an opportunity to read the manifesto,” Kenny said on Good Morning America.
“It’s handwritten. He does make some indication that he’s frustrated with the health care system in the United States. Specifically he states how we are the number one most expensive health care system in the world yet the life expectancy of an American is ranked 42 in the world. So he was writing a lot about his disdain for corporate American and in particular the health care industry.”
Mangione, 26, was nabbed after a five-day manhunt Monday at McDonald’s in Altoona, Penn., for possession of a ghost gun. He was later charged with the murder of Thompson, who was shot last Wednesday morning in Midtown Manhattan shortly before an investors conference.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, sitting next to Kenny on Good Morning America, said it is not yet clear if Mangione or his family had prior issues specifically with UnitedHealthcare. “There’s still a lot more investigating to do,” she said.
Mangione was not on the NYPD radar until his stunning arrest, which happened at a McDonald’s shortly after a customer and worker recognized him from the surveillance photos released by the NYPD and publicized around the world.
Shocking video shows the gunman approached Thompson from behind and opened fire.
Within 45 minutes the killer had escaped New York, police said, heading into Central Park on a bicycle, ditching it on the Upper West Side then getting on a bus at the Port Authority terminal in Washington Heights.
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