New York– On a cold Wednesday morning in New York City, Brian Thomson walked out of his hotel and headed towards a meeting to reveal earnings to investors. A hooded figure steps out behind him. 

Shots. 

Thomson falls dead on the ground, leaving behind a wife and kids. 

Meanwhile, the internet danced on his grave. 

But we need to start from the beginning. Brian Thomson was born on July 10th, 1974. Going into business at a young age, he worked his way up at various companies before eventually becoming the CEO at United Healthcare in 2021. Under his leadership, profits at UH went from $12 billion to $16 billion. However, how he did it did not rub some people the right way. Denial of claims have risen 31% from 2021 to 2024, with UH denying 8.7% of all claims, according to Ruerters.com. These denied claims could deny lifesaving care to someone who could not afford it. The company was also involved in a lawsuit alleging that they used AI to “automate” the process, which led to an increase in denied claims from 2019-2024.

Many Americans, including those in the healthcare field, did not like the denial rate of patients. 

“We as doctors have been crying, screaming on the top of our lungs regarding how lots of insurance companies are denying claims on a daily basis,” said Dr. Saju Mathew, a 20-year physician from Atlanta. 

These denials lead to a lot of hardships for many patients. Numerous patients faced inflated medical costs and increased health concerns as they were getting denied treatment. 

“Serious health and financial consequences arise as a direct result of insurance problems, and consumers whose problems include denied claims are far more likely to have needed care delayed or denied, to experience a decline in health status, and to face higher out-of-pocket costs,” said a survey from KFF. 

This all leads to a potential motive for the suspect arrested for the assassination, Luigi Mangione. He had a spinal injury when he was younger, and on his Goodreads account, he reviewed several books about spinal injury. Whether he had a claim denied for a treatment, or if he was even on a UH plan is unknown, but what is not unknown are the reasons he claims he did it. 

“I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart,” Mangione said in his handwritten note. 

“It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No, the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it,” Mangione wrote. 

This was a sentiment echoed by many on social media, with the Facebook post from United Healthcare stating they were deeply saddened by the loss of the CEO. The post garnered more than 77,000 laughing reactions. 

“The American People, however they vote, are fed up with the BS corporate private healthcare system,” wrote one user in a comment under the post. 

Another wrote, “I do not like celebrating the death of anyone, even my enemies, but that doesn’t mean I can’t celebrate justice. And for those who want to argue justice, the law isn’t want defines justice. This is a man whose led a company invested in killing people for profit … his death is justice.” 

This led to an interesting dichotomy, where conservative pundits attempted to paint the story as the left celebrating a man’s murder, with popular online commentator Ben Shapiro posting a video titled “The EVIL Revolutionary Left Cheers Murder!” However, in the comments, Shapiro did not receive the support he intended, with the majority siding with Mangione.

 “Republican pundits don’t realize this isn’t as politically partisan as they wished it were. We all hate our healthcare system. We may not advocate for murder, but sympathy for CEOs of these organizations is at an all-time low, regardless of R or D,” one user wrote. 

Many others expressed disappointment in the handling of the situation, with many commenting they were unsubscribing from his channel. One user wrote, “Find another audience to play apologist to the people who help make the lives of hard-working Americans difficult.” Even some students at FC have opinions about the recent killing. 

“I think it was a good thing, he did justice. Healthcare insurance companies are corrupt, and the claim denial rate is extremely high. I think it’s crazy that there are billionaires making so much money and families are out here losing lives because [the billionaires] don’t want to spend money,” said junior Tinley Parrish.

This show of online sympathy for the killer bled over to other corners as well, with comments lamenting Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (no relation to Ben) for saying Mangione was “no hero.” Some online personalities took the identity of the shooter in a different direction, taking the opportunity to make “thirst traps” of Mangione. A caption of one such video of him had the caption, “he’s so fine om .”

Mangione was eventually caught at a McDonalds, hash brown in hand. This provided another outlet for the Internet to visit its wrath. The McDonalds was review bombed once it was out that he was caught there.

 “More like Narc-donalds … I hope obesity and heart disease are in-network in PA. Deny, defend, depose, diarrhea @ McDonald’s,” wrote one user. Google has taken down most of the reviews because reviews that are “”not based on a real experience and does not accurately represent the location or product in question” are not allowed on the site. However, on Yelp, the reviews are still up. There are 58 reviews mentioning the word “rat,” and some users got very creative with ways to express their discontent with the employee.

 “My pal Luigi and I were dining here today. Our McRibs had no pickles even though we ordered extra. We went to the counter to state the issue, and one employee was very rude and even called the police on us. On top of all of this, they decided to skip the song that me and Luigi, we were both enjoying. It was 1987’s “Meet Me Halfway” by Mr. Kenny Loggins. They had the audacity to skip the song 20 seconds into it. How dare you skip Mr. Loggins. I saw Kenny back in ’94 and he put on one heck of a show that’s for sure,” wrote Kurt H. Others were a little less subtle:

 “All the food tastes like snitches. Fries… snitches, Burgers… snitches, Nuggets… snitches. Overall really not enjoyable,” wrote Liz S. 

Luigi is currently in a prison in Pennsylvania. He does not have a court date yet