UnitedHealthCare CEO shooting: Attorney for suspect in healthcare CEO killing says he needs to see evidence to judge ‘truthfulness’ and ‘accuracy’

UnitedHealthCare CEO shooting: Attorney for suspect in healthcare CEO killing says he needs to see evidence to judge ‘truthfulness’ and ‘accuracy’



CNN

Luigi Mangione’s lawyer said he wants to examine the fingerprints and ballistic evidence that police say they have against his client, who has been charged with, among other things, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“These two sciences in and of themselves have come under some criticism in the past in terms of their credibility, their truthfulness and their accuracy, no matter how you want to do it,” Pennsylvania-based attorney Thomas Dickey said on CNN -Show “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Wednesday.

“As lawyers, we have to see it. We have to see: how did they collect it? How much of it? And then we would ask our experts to look at it, and then we would question its legitimacy and the accuracy of those results.”

Dickey’s comments came after New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced that authorities had found a positive match between a 3D-printed gun Mangione had in his possession when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania and The three bullet casings discovered there were at the scene of the shooting in Midtown Manhattan.

Tisch also said Mangione’s fingerprints matched those investigators found on items near the scene of the Dec. 4 attack – a water bottle and an energy bar wrapper that the suspect allegedly purchased at a Starbucks about 30 minutes before the shooting had.

“We received the weapon in question back from Pennsylvania. It is now at the NYPD crime lab,” Tisch said at a public event on Wednesday. “We were able to match this weapon to the three shell casings we found at the scene in Midtown.”

On the three 9mm cartridge cases were the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose,” one word per bullet. Police have been investigating whether those words, which match the title of a 2010 book criticizing the insurance industry, could indicate a motive for the murder.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that they have the right guy,” Dickey told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” earlier this week. In addition to the fingerprints and ballistics data, investigators are also examining documents that police said were in Mangione’s possession at the time of his arrest.

In some of Mangione’s writings, he referred to pain from a back injury he suffered in July 2023, New York Police Department Chief Detective Joseph Kenny told Fox News on Tuesday. Investigators are reviewing an insurance claim for the injury.

“Some of his writings were about the difficulty of enduring that injury,” Kenny said. “So we’re looking at whether the insurance industry either rejected a claim from him or didn’t fully help him.”

Along with a three-page handwritten “statement of responsibility” found by Mangione when he was detained, investigators are also looking at the suspect’s notes in a spiral notebook, a law enforcement source briefed on the matter told CNN.

It contained to-do lists to facilitate a kill and notes justifying those plans, the source said. In a notebook passage, Mangione wrote about the late Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, who justified a deadly bombing campaign as protection against the onslaught of technology and exploitation. Mangione had also written about the Unabomber in online posts.

Mangione knew that UnitedHealthcare was holding an investor conference around the time Thompson was shot – and the suspect mentioned in writing that he was going to the conference site, the NYPD’s Kenny told Fox News on Tuesday.

In the passage from the notebook, Mangione concludes that using a bomb against his intended victim “could kill innocents” and the shooting would be more targeted, and considers what could be better than “killing the CEO at his own bean-counting conference.” “A police official informed on the matter told CNN.

The three-page document contained no specific threats but suggested “antipathy toward corporate America,” Kenny said.

According to an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN on Tuesday, the suspect appeared to be driven by anger against the health insurance industry and “corporate greed” as a whole.

“He appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking official as a symbolic exchange and a direct challenge to alleged corruption and ‘power plays,’ claiming in his note that he was the first to approach it with such brutal honesty. ‘,” said the NYPD assessment, which was based on Mangione’s “manifesto” and social media.

Suspected shooter Luigi Mangione is led from the Blair County Courthouse after an extradition hearing Tuesday in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

The killing of Thompson — a husband and father of two — highlighted the anger many Americans feel toward the health care industry. Mangione receives sympathy online and offers to pay his legal fees. It has also raised fears in leadership ranks across the country, with an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN warning that online rhetoric “could indicate an increased threat to senior leadership in the near future.”

As Mangione entered the courthouse earlier this week, shackled hand and foot and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with “DOC” written on the back, he shouted in part: “This is completely inappropriate and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.” It’s a lived experience.”

“He’s irritated and upset about what’s happening to him and what he’s being accused of,” Dickey told CNN, explaining Mangione’s temper tantrum and fight with police.

“He never had legal representation until he walked into the building yesterday. And I talked to him…Look at the difference between when he came in and when he came out…now he has a spokesman and someone fighting for him.”

Dickey has denied his client’s involvement in the murder in New York and expects he will plead not guilty to the murder charge there. Mangione also plans to plead not guilty to charges in Pennsylvania related to a gun and a fake ID that police allegedly found at the McDonald’s in Altoona when they were arrested, Dickey said.

The 26-year-old was denied bail at an extradition hearing Tuesday afternoon at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. Speaking to CNN, Dickey said Mangione is expected to receive a hearing on December 23.

CNN’s Dalia Faheid, Michelle Watson, Bonney Kapp, Dakine Andone, Sara Smart, Gloria Pazmino, Amanda Musa, Celina Tebor, Elise Hammond, Emma Tucker, Jordan Valinsky, Danny Freeman and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *