Featured Image Credit: Anadolu/Contributor / NurPhoto/Contributor / Getty
The world has been shocked by the brutal murder of Brian Thompson, with 26-year-old Luigi Mangione having been arrested and charged for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
Thompson was fatally shot in the back outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, with Mangione being taken into custody after someone reportedly recognized him in a Pennsylvania McDonald's.
Officials say Mangione was found with a 'ghost gun' firearm and a handwritten three-page document that outlined a 'motivation and mindset'. Before Mangione's arrest in Altoona, he started going viral due to CCTV footage taken before Thompson's murder.
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While the internet has since pored through every inch of Mangione's social media to try and piece together who he is, Spotify has removed a playlist titled "POV: Taking out a CEO."
Tracks on the now-removed playlist include "My Shot" from the musical Hamilton, Rihanna's "Man Down", and Taylor Swift's "I Did Something Bad". The 71-song playlist had received over 10,000 downloads before it was pulled, with the playlist now saying, "Title and pic removed by Spotify."
This has had something of a Streisand effect, and as you can imagine, with others now popping up. As you can see below, we found a new playlist with the same title that boasts a similar photo taken from CCTV.
The new playlist only has 81 saves at the time of writing but includes the likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dancefloor" and Britney Spears' "Criminal". Like the original playlist, we expect Spotify to act pretty quickly in taking this one down. People have been looking for Mangione's Spotify account, but as you can imagine, there are already a lot of fake ones out there.
There's a continuously bizarre trend surrounding the shooting, with dozens gathering in New York City's Washington Square Park to hold a lookalike contest. Entrees wore a hooded jacket and face masks, while other 'lookalikes' have been going viral on TikTok.
Not long after Mangione was charged, Republican state lawmaker Nino Mangione, who is thought to be Luigi's cousin, released a statement saying the family is 'shocked and devastated’. The statement was signed off by 'The Mangione Family' and said: "We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved."
As well as follower counts on Mangione's reported social media accounts surging, X has been flooded by the #FreeLuigi hashtag. Elsewhere, several GoFundMe pages have popped up and have quickly been removed. The platform's own terms clearly state funds can't be raised for "the legal defense of financial and violent crimes, including those related to money laundering, murder, robbery, assault, battery, sex crimes, or crimes against minors."
As details continue to come out, expect the shooting of Brian Thompson to continue to grab headlines.
