What NYC Mayor Adams told Luigi Mangione when they met in NYC

NEW YORK (PIX11) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he “wanted to send a strong message” when he met accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione in New York City on Thursday.

Mangione was flown back to New York Thursday to face federal charges of murder and stalking in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mayor Adams was photographed among police escorting Mangione before his court appearance in Manhattan.

“I wanted to send a strong message with the police commissioner that we are leading from the front,” Mayor Adams said during an interview. “I’m not going to just allow him to come into our city. I wanted to look him in the eye and state that, 'You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love.' And I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that.”

Mangione, 26, is accused of ambushing and shooting Thompson on Dec. 4 outside a Manhattan hotel where the head of the United States’ largest medical insurance company was walking to an investor conference.

Investigators believe Mangione was motivated by anger toward the U.S. health care system and corporate greed. 

According to the federal complaint, a notebook Mangione was carrying when he was arrested included several handwritten pages expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.

An August entry said that “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box,” according to the filing. An entry in October “describes an intent to ‘wack’ the CEO of one of the insurance companies at its investor conference,” the document said.

The killing ignited an outpouring of stories about resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies while also rattling corporate America after some social media users called the shooting payback.

“I was at a conference a few days ago with the top CEOs – IBM, Deloitte – there was a room full of CEOs and government officials. The intentional shooting and the response after really traumatized the entire industry. Not only the CEOs but the employees," Mayor Adams said.

The mayor also referenced a new Emerson College Polling national survey that found four in 10 young adults think the actions of the UnitedHealthcare CEO's killer were “acceptable.”

“That’s just unacceptable,” Mayor Adams said.