Donations pour in for US man who shot dead insurance chief: report
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New York: The 26-year-old man who gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson days ago has become an unlikely hero in 'certain circles' in the US.
Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League educated man belonging to a wealthy Baltimore family, shot dead Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4.
Since Mangione was charged with murder, online fundraising for his legal defense has received more than a thousand donations, Reuters reported.
Messages supporting and celebrating his crime have appeared online with some swooning over his looks of a fashion model, his smile, and six-pack abs.
Chilling ‘wanted’ posters with faces of CEOs appeared on walls in New York, according to the report.
Since his arrest on Monday, the support for him only intensified turning him into an unlikely celebrity.
However, the support for him as they appeared in fundraising site GiveSendGo points to ‘deep frustration’ that many Americans share over the healthcare system in the country.
It is reported that patients, depending on their insurance coverage, may be denied some treatments and reimbursements on the policy coverage.
Also, Americans reportedly spend more for healthcare than people in any other country, just as cost of insurance premiums, pharmaceuticals and hospital services have gone up over the last five years.
One donor to the fundraising reportedly wrote that ‘denying healthcare coverage to people is murder, but no one gets charged with that crime’.
Incidentally the shell casings found at the site of the murder carried words ‘Deny, Defend, Depose’, indicating the tactics of insurance companies to avoid paying out claims.
It is reported that as of Wednesday more than $31,000 has been raised on GiveSendGo alone, which dismayed a former NYPD detective sergeant, Felipe Rodriguez.
Rodriguez called Mangione a ‘stone-cold killer’, adding that people have turned him ‘a martyr for all the troubles’ they had with their insurance companies.
His lawyer said that Mangione, who is being held Pennsylvania on gun and forgery charges, plans to plead not guilty to the charges.
Meanwhile, social media posts suggest that Mangione was suffering from chronic back pain impacting his daily life.
It is not known if his health condition was a reason behind shooting Brian Thompson.