Family, friends of Luigi Mangione react to his arrest
NYPD
(PHILADELPHIA) — Family and friends reacted with shock and disbelief after Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, was identified as the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Monday following a dayslong manhunt after an individual at the establishment thought he bore a resemblance to the suspect being sought in the fatal shooting of Thompson last week outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. He has since been charged in New York with second-degree murder in what police have said is a targeted, premeditated attack.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
“We are devastated by this news,” the statement added.
The Gilman School, a private school in Baltimore from which Mangione graduated as valedictorian in 2016, said his “suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation.”
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students,” the statement continued.
A classmate who graduated from Gilman with Mangione told ABC News that Mangione “is the last person I expected to be involved in something like this.”
“He always came off as a really good kid, very nice, very humble, open to talk to anyone,” the classmate said. “Really not a problematic kid in high school. He never really got in trouble, wasn’t attention-seeking or anything like that. Just a bright kid with a bright future, is kind of what I thought.”
Mangione went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. It was “expected that he would go down like a typical path,” the classmate said.
“So when we heard about all of this, it came as a huge shock to us, and honestly, like our whole community,” the classmate said.
About six months ago, the classmate said he heard from other classmates that Mangione’s family was “inquiring about his whereabouts.”
“I heard that he got back surgery so we were all a little worried and many people reached out to him. No response,” the classmate said. “I didn’t hear anything about him until today when all the news dropped.”
“Huge shock, definitely,” they added.
Mangione’s last known address was in Honolulu, police said. R.J. Martin, the founder of a co-living space for remote workers in Honolulu who said he was Mangione’s roommate there, said he was “beyond shocked” by the news.
“It’s unimaginable,” Martin told Honolulu ABC affiliate KITV.
“Never once talked about guns, never once talked about violence,” Martin told the station. “He was absolutely a not violent person, as far as I could tell.”
Martin also recalled that Mangione had a back injury after a surf lesson and needed surgery.
He said they would talk about issues like health care, housing and food systems but “it wasn’t anything specific.”
“It wasn’t like he had an ax to grind,” he said.
When Mangione was arrested on Monday he had “written admissions about the crime” with him, according to the New York arrest warrant.
The suspect had several handwritten pages on him that appeared to express a “disdain for corporate America” and to indicate “he’s frustrated with the health care system in the United States,” NYPD Chief of Detective Joe Kenny told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Tuesday.
Mangione considered the killing of Thompson to be a “symbolic takedown” of UnitedHealthcare over perceived corruption, according to a confidential assessment of the crime by the NYPD intelligence bureau described to ABC News. The assessment is based in part on the suspect’s writings.
It is unknown if Mangione has a personal connection to UnitedHealthcare, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
In addition to murder, Mangione was charged in New York with possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon.
He was also charged with carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime” in Pennsylvania, where he remains in custody.
There is no information on counsel of record for him, a Pennsylvania court spokesperson said.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Peter Charalambous and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A new storm — which will strengthen into Hurricane Helene — is taking aim at Florida, where it’s forecast to make landfall along the Big Bend area as a hurricane on Thursday.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Tampa airport to close
The Tampa International Airport will close at 2 a.m. Thursday ahead of Hurricane Helene, officials said.
Airport officials expect to reopen Friday.
North Carolina declares state of emergency
North Carolina has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Helene, Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Wednesday.
“Helene threatens heavy rain, flash flooding, landslides, and damaging winds to the mountains and Piedmont areas of our state,” the governor warned in a statement. “Now is the time for North Carolinians to prepare, make sure emergency kits are up-to-date and pay attention to the weather alerts.”
The state is preparing water rescue teams and urban search and rescue teams to help respond to the storm.
Universities, schools close as Helene approaches
Florida A&M University, the University of Tampa, the University of Florida and Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus have all announced closures ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall. The University of Tampa is under a mandatory evacuation order.
Younger students will also be out of school in counties including Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando, Citrus, Sarasota, Leon and Hillsborough.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Latest forecast
Helene, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to rapidly intensify and could reach major category status — Category 3 — by Thursday morning.
Helene could be a high-end Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds by the time it makes landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area of Florida. Helene might even be a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds during landfall.
A hurricane warning is in effect just north of Tampa, covering Apalachicola, Florida; Tallahassee, Florida; and Valdosta, Georgia.
A tropical storm warning is in effect in Jacksonville, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Miami; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Inland flash flooding is also a major concern.
A separate storm is bringing heavy rain to Georgia and the Carolinas on Wednesday, so the additional rain from Helene could cause a historic flood event in the southern Appalachians Thursday night into Friday.
A tropical storm watch has been extended further north to include Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina, for Thursday night into Friday morning. Strong, damaging winds up to 70 mph are possible in Atlanta on Friday.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
University of Tampa students ordered to evacuate
The University of Tampa is ordering all students who live on campus to evacuate by 1 p.m. Wednesday, citing mandatory evacuation orders from Hillsborough County officials.
Hurricane Helene is forecast to bring dangerous storm surge to the Tampa Bay area.
“The residence halls will be closed after the evacuation concludes, and there will be no entry allowed into residential buildings until they are reopened following the storm,” the university said in a message to students.
The University of Tampa said it plans to resume operations on Monday.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Helene strengthens to Category 1 hurricane
Helene has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph.
Helene — now located about 500 miles south-southwest of Tampa, Florida — is the fifth hurricane to form in the Atlantic Basin this season.
64 of Florida’s 67 counties under watches or warnings
Sixty-four out of Florida’s 67 counties are under alerts as Helene nears the state, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Only three counties — Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa — are not under some type of watch or warning, like tropical storm, storm surge or hurricane, he said.
Wednesday is the last day for Floridians to finalize preparations before Helene hits, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned.
All Floridians should be prepared for power outages, DeSantis added.
At least 12 health care facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, are evacuating, and more may choose to do so in the coming hours, the governor said.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul
Extreme flash flooding possible in Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, Carolinas
Extreme flash flooding is possible in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
First, a storm system separate from Helene is hitting the south on Wednesday. Up to 6 inches of rain is possible over the next 24 hours, bringing a flash flood risk from Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina.
Then, Thursday afternoon through Friday morning, Hurricane Helene will bring even more extreme rain and flooding to the southern Appalachians.
A rare “high risk” alert for heavy rain has been issued. Up to 15 inches of rain is possible in some spots.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
How storm surge works and why it’s so dangerous
Helene is forecast to bring 10 to 15 feet of dangerous storm surge to Florida’s Big Bend area, and 4 to 8 feet of storm surge to Tampa Bay.
In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, at least 1,500 people died “directly, or indirectly, as a result of storm surge,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
Click here to read how storm surge works and why it’s so dangerous.
Helene nears hurricane strength
Tropical Storm Helene is nearing hurricane strength Wednesday morning as it churns just of the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Helene is about 100 miles west-southwest from the western tip of Cuba.
Tropical storm forecast to ‘rapidly’ intensify into major hurricane
Tropical Storm Helene was expected to “rapidly” strengthen and grow in size as it moved on Wednesday into the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. weather officials said.
The storm as of about 4 a.m. local time had maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to intensify into a hurricane on Wednesday, before further strengthening into a “major” hurricane on Thursday, the center said.
Helene early Wednesday was traveling northwest at about 9 mph, the center said.
“On the forecast track, the center of Helene will pass near the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula this morning, move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico on later today and Thursday, and reach the Big Bend coast of Florida late Thursday,” the center said.
Biden approves Florida emergency declaration ahead of Helene’s landfall
As Florida residents prepare for Tropical Storm Helene to make landfall Thursday, the White House has approved the state’s emergency declaration.
President Biden’s approval allows for federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will coordinate all federal disaster relief efforts, according to the White House’s statement.
Biden’s approval Tuesday comes as officials in Sarasota County announced a Level A evacuation order for portions of two neighborhoods beginning Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Officials encouraged residents in Curry Creek, Hatchett Creek, Venice and those in Forked Creek, Englewood to be aware of the conditions and stay alert for further updates.
Hurricane warnings issued for portions of Florida’s Panhandle, Big Bend and Gulf Coast
On the current track, Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to make landfall late Thursday night, between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. ET, as a major Category 3 hurricane with winds up to 115 mph in the Florida Big Bend region.
Hurricane warnings have been issued for Florida’s Panhandle, Big Bend and Gulf Coast regions and hurricane watch warnings have extended into southern Georgia.
Officials have issued tropical storm warnings from Naples and Fort Myers to Orlando and tropical storm watch warnings are in place across Florida’s east coast up to Savannah, Georgia.
Helene’s latest forecast
Helene is expected to strengthen to a hurricane on Wednesday as it enters the Gulf of Mexico and strengthen further to a major Category 3 hurricane by Thursday morning.
A hurricane watch is in effect in Florida from Tallahassee to Tampa, where hurricane conditions will be possible late Wednesday night through late Thursday night.
Wednesday night into Thursday morning, Helene’s outer bands will start to lash Florida’s Gulf Coast. The worst of the conditions will be throughout the day on Thursday.
Helene is forecast to make landfall Thursday night along Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane. Winds could be up to 115 mph during landfall.
Helene is expected to be a large hurricane, which means impacts will extend significantly beyond the center, impacting most of Florida and much of the Southeast.
After landfall, Helene is forecast to quickly move north into Georgia, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the South.
A significant flash flood risk stretches from the Florida Panhandle to South Carolina — including Tallahassee to Atlanta — Thursday night into early Friday.
-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin
How much rain, storm surge to expect
Ten to 15 feet of dangerous storm surge is forecast for Florida’s Big Bend area. Tampa Bay could see 4 to 8 feet of storm surge.
Four to 8 inches of rain is expected from Helene, with 12 inches locally, bringing major flash flooding.
Tornadoes are also possible on Wednesday and Thursday.
Damaging wind gusts over 100 mph will be possible in Tallahassee and Florida’s Big Bend area during landfall Thursday night.
-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin
Universities, schools close ahead of Helene
Ahead of Helene, Florida A&M University in Tallahassee canceled class from Tuesday afternoon through Friday. The university will be closed Wednesday through Friday.
Florida A&M said this weekend’s home football game and parents’ weekend will be rescheduled.
Florida State University said its Tallahassee campus will be closed from Wednesday morning to Sunday night.
FSU Tallahassee students can stay on campus during the closure, but should plan for possible power outages and be prepared to possibly stay inside all day Thursday, the university warned.
Officials in Florida are also closing public schools in multiple counties, including Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando, Citrus and Sarasota.
Mandatory evacuations have been announced in parts of Charlotte and Franklin counties.
Helene strengthens to tropical storm: Latest forecast
Helene, currently located about 180 miles east southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, strengthened to a tropical storm on Tuesday morning.
The forecast shows Helene moving through the Yucatan Channel Wednesday morning, bringing near hurricane-force wind gusts to Cancun, Mexico.
By Thursday morning, coastal flooding will reach Florida, including Naples and Fort Myers.
On Thursday night, Helene will make landfall near Apalachicola, Florida.
Dangerous wind gusts up to 105 mph are expected and storm surge will be a major threat for the Tampa Bay area.
By Friday morning, the center of Helene will be near Atlanta, bringing strong winds to Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Downed trees and power lines will be a major danger across the Southeast.
The flash flood threat will continue into the weekend in the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
State of emergency declared in 61 Florida counties
Helene is forecast to be a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall Thursday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Monday.
A state of emergency has been declared in 61 of Florida’s 67 counties, DeSantis said.
“The Big Bend and Panhandle should be especially prepared for a direct impact,” the governor said, and he urged residents to know their evacuation zone.
“You have time to be able to put this place into place,” DeSantis said, noting Helene’s impacts could begin Wednesday.
Latest forecast
Helene will strengthen to a hurricane Tuesday night, and rain is expected to begin in Florida Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning.
On Thursday evening, Helene will make landfall along Florida’s Big Bend area, located between Tallahassee and Gainesville.
Storm surge could reach up to 15 feet in the Big Bend area.
Heavy rain and strong winds are also major threats.
A hurricane watch is in effect for Florida’s Gulf Coast and a tropical storm watch was issued from Orlando to the Florida Keys.
By Thursday night into Friday, the storm will quickly push into Georgia with very heavy rain, gusty winds and possible flash flooding.
This weekend, the storm will stall over the Mid-South, bringing heavy rain and possible flooding to the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
A flood watch has been issued in Florida from Fort Myers to Tampa to Tallahassee, as well as in southern Georgia and Alabama.
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
Meteorology may have come a long way since its inception, but it is not possible for anyone — whether it be the government, scientists or billionaires — to control the weather, according to experts.
The desert region of Dubai received a record-breaking amount of rain — two year’s worth in 24 hours — in April. Ever since, every time a flash flooding event occurs, ABC New Chief Meteorologist and Managing Editor of the ABC News Climate Unit Ginger Zee has been receiving messages on social media from people who claim the sharp increase in precipitation is not the result of nature.
“They are making it rain” is the overall theme of the conspiracy theories Zee keeps hearing about.
The commenters are often referring to cloud seeding, a weather modification technique currently used in the United Arab Emirates and several places in the U.S., mostly in the Western U.S., a region notorious for its pervasive droughts. The geoengineering technology involves injecting microscopic particles — sometimes silver iodide — into the atmosphere to encourage rain and snowfall.
The particles then act like magnets for water droplets and bind together until they are heavy enough to fall as rain or snow, amplifying the amount of precipitation. But the water droplets can’t be made out of nothing — it has to be already raining or snowing for cloud seeding to take effect.
For the last several decades, there have been investments in small-scale cloud seeding operations in pockets in the West, both ground-based and in the air, Brad Udall, senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University, told ABC News.
Despite feats in geoengineering, humans have no capability whatsoever to control the weather, Andrew Dessler, director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies, told ABC News.
“Until recently, we weren’t even sure it worked,” Udall said. “But there’s some new science that suggests, yes, you can slightly increase the precipitation out of storms due to these, usually ground-based, but sometimes air-based efforts.”
A 10-year cloud seeding experiment in the Snowy Range and Sierra Madre Range in Wyoming resulted in 5% to 15% increases in snow pack from winter storms, according to a 2015 report from the Wyoming Water Development Office. In the region around Reno, Nevada, cloud seeding is estimated to add enough water to supply about 400,000 households annually, according to the DRI.
While humans can enhance existing weather, it is not possible to control it, Dessler said.
“We humans are not powerless,” Udall said. “But, unfortunately, in the weather realm, our ability to affect things is pretty minor.”
Cloud seeding can’t make it rain. It can’t even make a cloud, according to Zee. And it certainly is not being used to create storms with enough precipitation to cause flash flooding.
If humans could control the weather, then the megadrought in the West would probably never had persisted at the level that it did for decades, Udall said.
In late September and early October, Google searches for cloud seeding ramped up again as Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused severe destruction far beyond the storm’s direct impact, including flash flooding in the mountain region near Asheville, North Carolina, previously considered a climate haven.
While there is some evidence that cloud seeding can enhance precipitation, it’s impossible for humans to create or steer a hurricane, Dessler said.
“It’s amazing we’re even having this discussion because, of course, humans can’t control the weather in ways to create a hurricane,” Udall said.
However, there has been a larger-scale climate modification that has been ongoing for the past two centuries, Zee said.
“We’re doing that right now with green with enormous greenhouse gas emissions on a scale that humanity has never, ever done before,” Udall said.
Since the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1800s, the greenhouse gases emitted from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels have been causing global temperatures to rise at unprecedented rates, according to climate scientists.
The amplification of Earth’s natural warming has actually increased hourly rainfall rates — a key factor in flash flooding — across much of the U.S. by 10% to 40%, according to Climate Central.
“We have all contributed to making it rain more and heavier as we warm the planet,” Zee said.
Dessler likened global warming to “steroids” for extreme weather events.
“Steroids don’t hit a home run, but if you give steroids to a baseball player, he’s gonna hit more home runs,” Dessler said. “And that’s essentially, you know, the way to think about humans and the weather.”
The experts urged people to not believe rumors on the possibility that the weather can be controlled, chalking up the conspiracy theories as machinations of intrigue but nothing more.
“It’s yet one more example, right, of unbridled social media doing irreparable social harm,” Udall said.
ABC News’ Daniel Manzo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Daniel Penny over the May 2023 subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, put Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, in a six-minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically, according to police. Neely entered a subway car on an uptown F train at the Second Avenue stop, and was described by witnesses as yelling and moving erratically when Penny put Neely in a chokehold, officials said.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in Neely’s death. He pleaded not guilty.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if he’s convicted of manslaughter. There is no minimum sentence.
The proceedings began late so the defense could fix two audio exhibits. The prosecutors alleged the defense had “willy nilly edited” the audio and “taken out what they don’t like.” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said it would be misleading for the jury to hear an edited excerpt.
The judge agreed, and the defense recut the exhibits, so jurors were clear they were hearing edited portions.
The delay means the jury will likely not begin deliberations until Tuesday. If necessary, the judge asked jurors to consider continuing their deliberations Wednesday, when the trial did not sit.
The defense’s closing arguments
The defense attorney, Steven Raiser, asked jurors in closing arguments to imagine they were on the train that day, conjuring the scene with sound effects of closing doors, a train pulling out of a station and police body camera footage of passengers saying Neely “scared the living daylights out of everybody.”
A “violent and desperate” Jordan Neely entered the uptown F train on May 1, 2023, “filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences,” causing passengers to be “frozen with fear” before Daniel Penny “acted to save those people,” a defense attorney said Monday during closing arguments at Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial.
In its summation, the defense challenged the prosecution’s assertion that Penny held Neely in a chokehold for “way too long,” and did not let go for almost six minutes. Raiser said Penny did not intend to kill Neely but did not let go because Neely was fighting back.
“Of course, he didn’t. He had to remain in place out of fear that Neely would break free,” Raiser said.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
Defense attorney Steve Raiser argued that Penny “was not applying a textbook Marine blood choke because his purpose was not to render Mr. Neely unconscious,” Raiser said. Raiser said Penny applied a chokehold “in a less aggressive manner,” reflecting his character.
“He could have squeezed Mr. Neely to unconsciousness,” Raiser said. “Instead, he laid with him on the dirty subway floor while the smell of uncleanliness…and feces enveloped him.”
The defense summation included an image of the two men on the subway floor: “It’s basic human instinct to grab at the arm choking you. You don’t see that here because Danny’s not choking him,” Raiser said.
Raiser argued Penny was not applying pressure on Neely’s neck in the hold’s final 51 seconds and the whole case represented a rush to judgment: “This was not a chokehold death,” Raiser said. “They failed to prove their case, period.”
During the trial
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Penny went “way too far,” holding Neely around the neck for nearly six minutes, past the point when he posed a threat. About 30 seconds after Penny put Neely in the chokehold, the train arrived at the next station and many passengers left the train car, according to court filings.
Footage of the interaction between Penny and Neely, which began about 2 minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely for about 4 minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train with a couple of passengers nearby.
Prosecutors argue that Penny should have known that his minutes-long chokehold was turning fatal.
Witness accounts of Neely’s behavior that day differ.
In court filings, some passengers described their fear. One passenger said they “have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that.” Another said Neely was making “half-lunge movements” and coming within a “half a foot of people,” according to court filings.
Other passengers on the train that day said they didn’t feel threatened — one “wasn’t really worried about what was going on” and another called it “like another day typically in New York. That’s what I’m used to seeing. I wasn’t really looking at it if I was going to be threatened or anything to that nature, but it was a little different because, you know, you don’t really hear anybody saying anything like that.”
