The heroism attributed to suspect Luigi Mangione is alarming

The rhetoric on social media following the killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York earlier this month has been “terribly alarming,” US Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned.

“It speaks to what’s actually effervescent up right here on this nation, and sadly we see that manifesting itself within the violence, the home violent extremism that exists,” he instructed CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.

Some on social media celebrated Luigi Mangione, the person accused of taking pictures Mr. Thompson, and shared their anger at America’s non-public well being insurers.

Mayorkas mentioned he was “alarmed by the heroism attributed to a suspected assassin of a father of two on the streets of New York.”

Mr. Thompson, 50, the CEO of America’s largest well being insurer UnitedHealthcare, was shot lifeless outdoors a Manhattan resort on December 4, sparking an enormous manhunt for the killer.

Mr. Mangione, 26, was arrested days later in Pennsylvania and flown to New York the place he faces each federal and state costs, together with first-degree homicide in aiding and abetting terrorism.

Investigators accuse him of finishing up a focused killing, pointing to proof that means long-standing animosity towards the U.S. well being care business. On social media, help for Mr. Mangione has typically been accompanied by grievances and complaints to the medical health insurance business.

“Now we have been involved in regards to the rhetoric on social media for a while,” Mayorkas mentioned on Sunday. “We have seen tales of hate. We have seen tales of anti-government sentiment. We have seen private grievances expressed in language of violence.”

Mayorkas, whose Division of Homeland Safety is partly answerable for defending Individuals from home terrorism, mentioned his division sees a “big selection of narratives” that “push some people to violence.”

“It’s one thing that we’re very involved about,” he mentioned. “It’s a heightened menace surroundings.”

However the 65-year-old, whose time period as head of the division ends subsequent month, harassed that Mr Thompson’s homicide was “the act of a person”. [and] doesn’t replicate the American public.”

Mr. Mangione will stay behind bars in New York as his legal professionals mentioned final week they might not apply for bail. He’s in federal custody on the Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn, the identical facility the place Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held.

He’ll seemingly be assigned a roommate and obtain every day visits from medical and psychological providers, police sources instructed CBS, the BBC’s US companion.

Though the loss of life penalty just isn’t utilized in New York, he faces 4 federal costs, together with homicide and stalking, which might make him eligible for the sentence. He additionally faces a number of state costs.

He’s anticipated to be arraigned on the costs in New York on Monday. Mr. Mangione faces 11 costs, together with first-degree homicide and homicide as a terrorism crime.