Brittany Kriegstein
Appearances
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
From the second it happened, the second we got a notification about somebody being shot in Midtown, of course, we were on high alert because I cover gun violence consistently across the entire city. People don't often get shot in Midtown. The precinct where this happened has not had a shooting at all this year.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
So the video basically shows a masked man in a hoodie, really hard to make out who it could be, who just very calmly waits and then fires several shots within close range of now we know is Brian Thompson, who sort of appears in the video startled. He stumbles away. He was hit, officials said, in the calf and also in the back.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And so he did have a second to sort of turn around and face the shooter who, calmly seemed to clear a jam in his gun and continue firing. There was a bystander right there when it all happened who ran away but the shooter wasn't interested in that person. They were going for Thompson. The shooter escapes through a nearby alleyway.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Again, this is midtown Manhattan, but at 6.45 in the morning, there weren't too many people around. He runs through this alleyway, according to officials. He then jumps on an e-bike and starts pedaling north to Central Park, and that's basically the last place he was seen for some time.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We know he ditched his backpack there, which officials later found, and found that it only contained some Monopoly money. And then he... apparently jumped in a taxi. He was caught on surveillance video heading uptown even further to the Port Authority bus station on 179th Street and Broadway. And officials basically lost track of him after that from what we know of the investigation.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Now, as somebody who covers gun violence day in and day out in New York City, I can confirm that it usually does take a couple days to find people, even when the cases are pretty cut and dry, even when police say that they know exactly who they're looking for.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
So I know that there's a very high threshold of evidence that the DAs need in order to bring charges and the police need in order to request search warrants and things like that. Surveillance video canvassing takes a long time. This person obviously did as well as he could to shield himself, hide his face.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We have that one picture of him smiling in the hostel that really sort of seemed to accelerate the investigation because it was a really good picture of his face. But other than that, police didn't have a ton to go on. Of course, DNA evidence takes a long time. They say he discarded a cup at Starbucks. These things all take time. So it's hard to say.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
But of course, given the gravity of this case, it is it does feel surprising that That it took so long to find him and that the NYPD wasn't involved actually in catching him when it came down to it. This was just a bystander, a local person, an employee at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
So apparently he was sitting and eating at this McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. That's about 230 some odd miles away from New York City. And he was there typing away on a laptop wearing a beanie and a medical mask. And an employee recognized him based on the photos that police had circulated, now photos that seemingly have gone around the country and back again.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And this person called the local authorities who came.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
When they asked him about whether he'd been in New York City, he actually went silent and started shaking, according to court documents. And that was pretty significant to them that, you know, he had something to hide. They took him in for questioning. They found a 3D printed ghost gun, which was consistent with the gun that was used to shoot Thompson.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
There is a lot to pull from. Obviously, with the amount of attention this case has generated, the social media spheres are just exploding with different kinds of theories. One interesting thing about Mangione is that he did have pretty open and exposed social media accounts. In a lot of the cases where you have somebody who plans to do something like this, they lock down their social media.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
They don't want anybody knowing anything about their lives. He almost seems to have been in the opposite mentality. There are photos he posted of an x-ray of what appears to be his own back with some pretty serious-looking pins in it.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And it's been reported by several outlets and talking to his family members and old friends that he had a pretty serious back surgery maybe a few months ago, and after that sort of fell off the face of the earth. People say it drove him crazy. We don't exactly know what his interaction was with UnitedHealthcare at this time.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
We don't know exactly what was written in that manifesto besides ill will towards corporate America. That's what police have shared with us so far. So again, there's just a lot of speculation going on, but he comes from a very... well-connected family in Maryland. He went to a really good prep school. He graduated the University of Pennsylvania. He was high school valedictorian.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
So I think people at this time are really struggling to see the connection between his upbringing and then whatever drove him to allegedly plan this attack.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
So in Pennsylvania, he's been charged with gun possession. And in New York, charges dropped late Monday night from the Manhattan DA's office charging him with murder in the second degree, which is basically just murder with intent to kill somebody, three counts of gun possession, and also possession of a forged instrument, which could relate to those fake IDs. And
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
He will be extradited at some point. It's hard to say exactly when. That all depends if the judge in Pennsylvania decides to waive an extradition hearing or not. But that could happen within the next couple days.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
I think it could. People are just trying to digest, like I said, what was that connection? Why did he jump from this upbringing? Maybe it would make more sense if he, you know, was poor and disadvantaged and was struggling to afford basic medical care for his family. But it just doesn't seem like that was necessarily the case given his upbringing, given his education.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
I will just say I cover murders for a living. I have never seen... And I've covered murders of people who are very unpopular. I have never seen such glorification of somebody who has allegedly committed a violent act against somebody else. I just have not seen anything like this. And it's really been eye-opening. Jokes aside, memes aside, people have been sharing their own struggles with...
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
health insurance and deep struggles, surgeries, illnesses. And they're using this incident as a platform to really express a lot of those pent up feelings. And that has been a real moment of reckoning, I think, across the country about the systems that we have here for taking care of ourselves and each other.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
And it just goes to show that no matter what social status you're from, somebody with money, with means, with education, had a real serious problem seemingly with health insurance. So in that sense, it's been a strange uniting force.
Today, Explained
The UnitedHealth CEO shooting
Whether or not you agree with a lot of the things being said, it's just been a real reckoning with the health insurance system and people are hoping something will change.