NEW YORK (NewsNation) — The New York Police Department is warning health care executives following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Viral posts on social media have listed the names and salaries of several prominent health insurance executives. In response, some companies have removed executive’s photos and biographies from their websites.
Many social users have been celebrating Brian Thompson’s murder, something law enforcement officials fear could incite further violence.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police said.
Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Mangione, according to an online court docket. He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
Mangione was sitting in the rear of the McDonald’s wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer, court documents said. A customer saw him and an employee called 911, said Kaz Daughtry, an NYPD deputy commissioner.
In his backpack, police found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed black silencer, the complaint said. Such ghost guns can be assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making them difficult to trace. The pistol had a metal slide and plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel.
He was taken into custody at about 9:15 a.m., police said.