On Dec. 4, Brian Thompson, CEO of the U.S.-based insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in a targeted attack shortly before 7 a.m. in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Authorities were deployed to the scene immediately, but the gunman was not apprehended at the time. Shell casings found at the site were engraved with the words “delay” and “depose”, referencing the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” commonly associated with the insurance industry. The phrase is also the title of a 2010 book by Rutgers Law Professor Jay M. Feinman. These details led the New York Police Department to confirm the attack was planned and intentional, therefore opening a national investigation into the shooter.

In the days following the shooting, the NYPD uncovered more details surrounding the attack. Security camera footage depicting the two suspects was shared with the public in an attempt to encourage witnesses to provide information. Initial reports from the investigation revealed that the suspect had entered New York on a public bus days before the attack, they left the scene of the shooting on a CityBike, and they disposed of their backpack in Central Park. Initially, the contents of the backpack were not revealed, but later reports state it was full of Monopoly money. The investigation in Midtown Manhattan and Central Park continued in the next few days.

On Dec. 9, Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from Maryland, was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after authorities were dispatched to a McDonald’s restaurant in the city based on a tip from an employee who believed a man matching the shooter’s description had been a customer.

Mangione was taken into custody in Pennsylvania and held without bail until extradition to New York on Dec. 19. He now faces 11 charges, including second-degree murder as a crime of terror. Federal charges were later added to his case, making the death penalty a possible sentence. The key evidence against Mangione includes a 3D-printed firearm linked to the shooting and a notebook, outlining a detailed attack plan and “hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.”

The shooting sparked a myriad of public reactions. Some were surprisingly humorous, such as the look-alike contest held at Washington Square Park, while others echoed the authorities’ stance that vigilantism has no place in the modern world, despite the fact that even they agreed the insurance system in the U.S. has become unreliable and harmful.

Prominent figures including conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, publicly criticized the attack. The reactions from his viewers were unexpectedly unanimously against Shapiro’s stance. Some of the comments under the original YouTube video state “he is not one of us, he is just another richie” and “Your entire business model is based on us hating each other,” an almost unprecedented display of disagreement and disappointment with Shapiro from his fans and an expression of class consciousness that is not typically the focus of conservative political enthusiasts, such as the devoted followers of right-wing political commentators.

Mangione’s treatment in custody has drawn scrutiny. Some observers claim the authorities are trying to make an example of him and “make him a villain.” This is the takeaway from a live news report in front of the Pennsylvania prison where Mangione was initially held.In the broadcast with reporter Alex Caprariello from NewsNation, inmates of Mangione’s yelled “Free Luigi” over the fence and confirmed the conditions of his imprisonment were unnecessarily poor. The reporters from NewsNation were surprised at how active the inmates were in this alternative form of interviewing in which the prisoners would watch the broadcast on their TV screens and answer questions with light signals from their cells.

Additionally, many journalists called Luigi Mangione’s latest public appearance a staged “perp walk.” The appearance was after Mangione landed in NYC with a helicopter and was escorted by NYPD officers of all ranks and the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, to the courthouse. A perp walk is the practice of law enforcement parading a suspect after their arrest in public. It is also called a crime reporter’s red carpet as the intention is for the suspect to be photographed by the media at their most vulnerable, a practice which authorities defend as an act of transparency, but it is often criticized as public humiliation. The New York Times went as far as to call Luigi Mangione’s “Welcome to New York” cinematic, which also sparked questions about the motive behind Adams’s presence.