Investigators are trying to figure out what would drive a man from a wealthy and prominent Maryland family to carry grievances against the health care industry so severe that he was willing to kill.
Police are now looking into Luigi Mangione, 26, who was arrested after several days on the run after the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson.
“We still want to know the why. The ‘why’ is not that he was enamored with the health care industry, but what was the trigger?” former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt said. “And this is what is going to interest investigators within the last six months when he kind of went dark.”
In addition, Van Zandt, who has written a lot about criminal psychology, said law enforcement will be looking into just how many others may have known this plan was in the works.
“So many times, you see a younger person like him will be on the internet, ranting and raving, and other people will know what he’s talking about,” he said. “Who else might have known? Who else might have assisted?”
Van Zandt said the challenge will be tracking back through the last six months of Mangione’s life, when it appears things might have spiraled out of control.
“What was that switch?” Van Zandt said. “That is what we still have to identify.”
He also said the underlying motives — and perhaps the clues that were missed by friends, family and others — could provide a framework for future investigations.
Van Zandt also brought up a high-profile case many around the D.C. region remember as an example of what police in New York did differently.
“So many times in the past, law enforcement has held information close to them,” said Van Zandt, who used the D.C. sniper case as an example. “Law enforcement had the license plate and description of that vehicle that the snipers were using, but held onto it because they didn’t want the public to be hurt by those individuals, and they wanted to find them and make the arrest.”
Van Zandt added that, “In this particular case, the right decision was made. Use the public as a force multiplier, get the picture, get the information out there. Somebody’s going to know him or somebody’s going to see him, and that’s what happened here.”
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