As if it were the main character of the movie V for Vendetta, the public has unleashed total frenzy for Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson. But for the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, the man is “not a hero” as people have portrayed him.
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"In the United States, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve political differences or express a point of view," Shapiro said during a press conference on Monday night after Mangione's appearance in court. "He is not a hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald's this morning," he added.
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How has the public support been for Luigi Mangione?
Mangione, who was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, this Monday, had been hailed as a sort of masked vigilante since the crime was made public, while he still remained anonymous as authorities struggled to determine his identity and location.
Before he was identified, the security images that captured him just a few hours after the crime, where part of his face was visible, incited many people online to speculate, to the point of wonder, about who this hooded killer could be. Even a 'look-alike' contest was held where Mangione was the 'character' to be copied in appearance; similar to those that have been done for celebrities like Timothée Chalamet or Harry Styles.
After Mangione's identity became public, support only increased. First, there were mass negative reviews, or 'review bombing,' on the McDonald's establishment where he was arrested, and then came the financial support, where he even managed to accumulate the sum of 200 thousand dollars in a fundraising campaign through the GoFundMe platform to pay for his legal expenses.
The campaigns created were requesting funds to ensure that the young American had "a fair trial," as reported by The Independent. GoFundMe had to delete all the pages, stating that "GoFundMe's Terms of Service prohibit fundraising for the legal defense of violent crimes. Fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded," said a GoFundMe spokesperson.
Mangione, from whom information continues to emerge as the hours go by, was charged with murder, along with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, one count of possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, and one count of criminal possession of a firearm in the third degree, as shown in online court documents.