New York (AFP) – Fingerprints found at the scene of the brazen daylight murder of a US insurance executive match those of the man charged with the crime, US media reported Wednesday citing police sources. Luigi Mangione, 26, remains in Pennsylvania as he fights efforts to extradite him to New York to face justice over the alleged targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson last week.
He is accused of murdering Thompson on a Manhattan street, triggering a nationwide manhunt that ended Monday when he was recognized at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Mangione’s fingerprints matched those found near the crime scene, and while detectives previously claimed to have located prints on items at the location, the ABC and CBS reports did not specify where the prints were found.
Mangione’s lawyer Thomas Dickey did not respond to an AFP request for comment, but previously told local media he had not “seen any evidence yet” implicating his client. He said Mangione denies the charges.
A week after the crime, detectives are focusing on what may have motivated the engineer, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Baltimore family, to allegedly shoot Thompson in cold blood outside an investor conference. Police have said that when he was arrested, Mangione had a three-page handwritten text criticizing the US health care system, which is often maligned for putting profits ahead of people.
He also had a notebook with him containing planning notes for the murder, The New York Times reported citing law enforcement sources. “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” said one entry according to The Times.
© 2024 AFP
