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NEW YORK — A day after a masked gunman killed the CEO of New York City United Healthcare, San Francisco police provided the FBI with valuable information about the suspect’s identity. He looked like a man who had been reported missing to police. Last month it was Luigi Mangione.
San Francisco police provided Mangione’s name to the FBI on Dec. 5, a law enforcement official not authorized to discuss details of the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
That was the day the New York Police Department released surveillance images showing the face of a suspected gunman who checked into a Manhattan hostel.
“Of the multiple tips the New York State FBI has received from the public and law enforcement regarding the Dec. 4, 2024, murder in midtown Manhattan, the first tip regarding the possible identity of the suspect was received from the San Francisco Police Department. ” the FBI confirmed. Friday’s statement.
The FBI statement did not provide details about what the information was or when it was received, but said New York investigators “conduct routine investigative activities and pass this and other information on to the New York City Police Department.” I have made inquiries.”
Mangione was arrested on Monday, Dec. 9, after an employee at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, called police to say a person eating breakfast at the restaurant resembled the person being sought as the suspected shooter. Ta.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said at the time that investigators with the department did not know Mr. Mangione’s name until he showed up at the McDonald’s.
A message seeking comment was left with the NYPD on Friday.
The San Francisco Department’s tip to the FBI was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was ambushed and shot to death outside a hotel where the company’s annual investor conference was being held.
A leader at the insurance company’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, described Thompson as a kind and wonderful Friday in a guest essay published in the New York Times.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Whitty acknowledged that the patchwork U.S. health care system is “not working as well as it should,” but Thompson said he cares about his customers. , stated that they are working on improvements.
The killing is seen as a violent expression of widespread anger against the insurance industry. Mr Whitty said people at the company were struggling to make sense of not only the killing, but also the abuse and threats directed at colleagues.
Police said Mangione had a gun that matched the shell casings found at the shooting scene and a three-page letter lamenting the high cost of health care in the United States and naming United Healthcare by profit and size. That’s what it means. The company is a division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurance company in the United States. Mangione is being held in Pennsylvania and plans to plead not guilty to murder charges in New York, his lawyer said.
Whitty said he understands people’s frustrations, but said Thompson is part of the solution.
Thompson never forgot his upbringing on his family’s farm in Iowa and focused on improving the consumer experience.
“His father spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. The BT we know worked on farms and fished in gravel pits with his brothers as a child. He never forgot where he came from, because his first consideration when finding ways to improve care was the needs of people living in places like Jewell, Iowa. Whitty writes.
Mr Whitty said his company bears some responsibility for the lack of understanding of coverage decisions.
“We know that our health care system isn’t working as well as we should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it. No one would design a system like us. And No one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades,” Witty wrote. “Our mission is to help it work better.”
He said it was unfair that the company’s employees faced a barrage of threats even as they grieved the death of a colleague.
“Whether it’s an employee answering a customer’s phone call or a nurse visiting a patient’s home, employees should never have to worry about their safety or the safety of their loved ones,” he wrote.
A Lakeland, Florida, woman was charged this week with threatening an employee of her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, during a phone call. During the recorded call, she quoted the words Thompson’s killer had written on the shell casing, saying, “You guys are next,” police said.
Police said the gunman was waiting in the early morning hours of December 4 outside a hotel where a health insurance company was holding an investor meeting. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on his bicycle.
Mangione is fighting extradition to New York to face possible murder charges in Thompson’s killing.
Sisak writes for The Associated Press.
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