The bravery given to CEO’s murder suspect is worrying – Mayorkas
US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the rhetoric on social media has been “extraordinarily worrying” following the killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York earlier this month.
“It reveals what’s really going on in this country, and unfortunately we see it manifest in violence, domestic violent extremism,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
Some people on social media celebrated Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting Mr Thompson, and shared anger at America’s private health insurers.
Mayorkas said he was “alarmed by the heroism of the alleged killer of a father of two on the streets of New York”.
Mr Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest US health insurer, was shot dead outside a Manhattan hotel on the morning of December 4, prompting a massive search for the killer.
Mr. Mangione, 26, was arrested days later in Pennsylvania and flown to New York where he faces both federal and state charges, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism.
Investigators have accused him of carrying out a targeted killing, pointing to evidence that suggests a long-standing animosity toward the American health care industry. On social media, support for Mr. Mangione is often accompanied by complaints and grievances with the health insurance sector.
“We have been concerned about the rhetoric on social media for some time,” Mayorkas said Sunday. “We have seen stories of hate. We have seen stories of anti-government sentiment. We have seen personal grievances couched in the language of violence.”
Mayorkas, whose Department of Homeland Security is responsible in part for protecting Americans from domestic terrorism, said his department sees “a wide range of narratives” that “motivate some individuals to violence.”
“It’s something we’re very concerned about,” he said. “This is an increased threat environment.”
But the 65-year-old, whose tenure at the helm of the department ends next month, insisted Mr Thompson’s killing was “the action of an individual (and) does not reflect the American public”.
Mr Mangione will remain behind bars in New York after his lawyers said last week they would not apply for bail. He is in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same facility where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is being held.
Law enforcement sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS that she would likely be assigned a roommate and have daily visits from medical and psychological services.
Although New York does not have the death penalty, he faces four federal charges, including murder and stalking, that could make him eligible for execution. He also faces several state charges.
He is expected to be tried on state charges in New York on Monday. Mr. Mangione faces 11 charges, including murder in the first degree and murder as a terrorism offense.
