New York City officials wanted to send a message on Thursday by escorting Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, from a helipad after he was extradited to Manhattan.
But social media users, criticized for heroizing Mangione, seemingly found a different message. His flanked arrival spurred an image dubbed by one viral post as a “late contender for hardest image of the year.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams and law enforcement officers followed Mangione — the subject of thirst tweets, a look-alike contest and other fanfare — in a so-called “perp walk” before he was brought to a federal courthouse in the city.
Mangione was flown to New York after waiving his right to an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania, the state where he was arrested after a multi-day search that ended at a McDonald’s.
Mangione appeared in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs as officers surrounded him in a “perp walk” that, per CNN’s senior justice correspondent Evan Pérez, is usually avoided as such a move is “considered prejudicial.”
John Miller, a former deputy commissioner with the New York City Police Department and CNN’s chief law enforcement analyst, chalked the unusual arrival up to “the public support” for Mangione and security concerns over whether somebody would “try and free him from law enforcement.”
Adams — in remarks to reporters outside the helipad used by presidents and top business executives — said he and New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch wanted to send a “very clear, loud message” against violence in the city to show “the symbolism of leading from the front.”
The New York Police Department also shared its own photos of Mangione being led into a plane and trailed by officers, including some armed with rifles.
The move by New York officials appeared to spark another round of social media users heroizing Mangione including those who drew an eerie comparison between the so-called “perp walk” and a scene from James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman” movie, a teaser trailer for which was released Thursday.
“he allegedly killed one (1) guy btw,” read an X post with 237,000 likes alongside a photo of Mangione’s arrival captured by Michael Nagle for Bloomberg.
We Need Your Support
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“with no exaggeration, this is actual contemporary art,” wrote one X user.
“why do they keep accidentally making him look like the coolest person alive don’t they want us to hate him,” wrote another user in a post with 38,000 likes.
The fatal shooting of Thompson has sparked talks of Americans’ frustration with the health insurance industry in recent weeks as lawmakers such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have all weighed in on the topic.