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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Inmates at the prison where the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO is being held have defended him.
Luigi Mangione, 26, remained jailed without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on Monday and charged with gun and forgery offenses.
Manhattan prosecutors are working to bring him to New York to face a murder charge in the death of Brian Thompson, who was gunned down as he walked alone to his company's annual investor conference in New York City on the morning of December 4.
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Mangione's lawyer Thomas Dickey has said his client will plead not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania. He said Mangione would contest his extradition to New York and wants a hearing on the issue.
Inmates at the State Correctional Institution Huntingdon in Pennsylvania, where Mangione is being held, defended him during a live broadcast of NewsNation's Banfield on Wednesday.
The inmates could be heard yelling "free Luigi" and "Luigi's conditions suck" to NewsNation's Alex Caprariello, who was standing outside the facility. They also shouted that Mangione does not have a television in his cell, in response to a question from the show's host, Ashleigh Banfield.
According to NewsNation, Mangione is in a cell by himself and kept away from other inmates. Newsweek has contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for comment via email.
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Mangione's fingerprints were matched with those found on a water bottle and protein bar found near the crime scene, New York's Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday. She added that a gun found on Mangione after his arrest matches shell casings that were discovered at the scene of the shooting.
The New York Police Department's Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Mangione did not appear to have ever been a UnitedHealthcare customer, but may have been motivated by anger toward the health-care industry.
UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare's parent company, confirmed to Newsweek on Thursday night that it did not provide health insurance for Mangione.
Investigators are looking into an accident that injured Mangione's back and sent him to an emergency room in July last year, Kenny said, and studying his writings about his disdain for the U.S. health-care system.
"We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health-care organization in America," Kenny told NBC New York on Thursday. "So that's possibly why he targeted that company."
Kenny added: "It seems that he had an accident that caused him to go to the emergency room back in July of 2023, and that it was a life-changing injury.
"He posted X-rays of screws being inserted into his spine. So the injury that he suffered was a life-changing, life-altering injury, and that's what may have put him on this path."
In a manifesto found on Mangione when he was arrested, he wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health-care system in the world and the profits of large corporations continue to rise while "our life expectancy" does not.
"It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play," Mangione wrote. "Evidently, I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty."
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