UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson murder suspect Luigi Mangione outburst as cops push him inside Pennsylvania court

Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged with murder in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had a brief struggle with the officers and had an outburst while he was being escorted inside a court in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate turned towards a group of reporters and shouted in parts, “completely out of touch” and “an insult to the intelligence of the American people”. As Mangione angrily made the remarks, the officers pushed and whisked him inside the courthouse. It was unclear what he was referring to.

Mangione, who belongs to a prominent Maryland real estate family, is fighting attempts to extradite him to New York where he could face a murder charge in the killing of Thompson. Mangione is jailed in Pennsylvania on gun and forgery charges after he was denied bail, with prosecutors saying he was too dangerous to be released.

During the brief hearing, Mangione stared straight at the hearing, occasionally looking at papers, rocking in his chair or looking back at the gallery. He attempted to speak at one point but his lawyer asked him to keep quiet.

“You can’t rush to judgment in this case or any case. He’s presumed innocent. Let’s not forget that,” defence lawyer Thomas Dickey said after the hearing.

At the time of his arrest, police found a handwritten document, where Mangione was dismayed with what he described as “parasitic” health insurance companies and accused them of corporate greed and power.

The 26-year-old wrote that the US had the most expensive healthcare system in the world and said that while profits of healthcare companies were continuing to rise, “our life expectancy wasn’t”.

On December 4, Thompson, 50, died after being shot in the back and leg outside a hotel in Manhattan in New York, where he was attending an annual investor conference. Police termed the shooting as a targeted attack. He left behind his wife and two sons.

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, said Mangione could have become the CEO of a health insurance company and served the people but chose to commit the crime of shooting someone “in the back”.

“We will continue to see outbursts like this from the accused murderer of CEO Brian Thompson. Luigi Mangione could have become a CEO and could have changed the course of a company to serve and aid others. He had the pedigree and the education. Instead, he chose to shoot a man in the back. Luigi’s back isn’t the problem. It’s his moral compass that is askew,” she tweeted.

According to his friends and social media posts, Mangione had been battling with a chronic back pain and his X profile showed a background image of an x-ray with what appeared to be screws and plates inserted in his lower back.

Mangione was arrested on Monday after he was spotted by a McDonald’s employee while he was eating at an outlet in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His arrest brought an end to a massive manhunt that stretched for days and which saw police widening its search beyond New York and using its divers to search for clues and investigate evidence.

A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that fingerprints found near the spot where Thompson was shot dead matched with those of Mangione.

Mangione was arrested in possession of a ghost gun with a silencer, a US passport, multiple fake IDs and the handwritten manifesto. Police also noted that he had shared quotes online from Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber”.

(with inputs from agencies)