San Francisco police identified Luigi Mangione as the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and informed the FBI four days prior to his capture, according to recent reports.
A local officer recognised the 26-year-old suspect from surveillance footage distributed by the NYPD following Thompson’s shooting. The officer contacted federal authorities, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sources indicated that Mangione was familiar to California police because his family had reported him missing on November 18, just weeks before the incident.
Investigators are working to establish the motive behind the killing, including examining whether Mangione’s back injury from July last year potentially sparked hostility towards the healthcare sector.
Law enforcement is analysing Mangione’s social media content, which includes X-ray images of a back and a three-page document containing hostile comments about “parasitic” health insurance companies, according to an NYPD official.
“He posted X-rays of numerous screws being inserted into his spine — and [in] some of the writings, he was discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury,” the official stated, adding, “As far as motive, it looks like he had animus toward the healthcare industry.”
Currently, Mangione is detained without bail in Pennsylvania on gun and forgery charges, while Manhattan prosecutors are working on his extradition to New York to face murder charges related to the CEO’s death.
It remains unclear whether the FBI received or acted upon the tip from San Francisco police, New York Post reported.