If genocide wasn’t enough to convince you to join the BDS movement, perhaps Luigi Mangione’s arrest could be. Mangione, known as the (hot) UnitedHealthcare shooter, might still be a free man if he’d skipped his Starbucks run that morning he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York last week. Instead, the 26-year-old was first identified at the coffee chain (girl, the boycott!), and later, a McDonald’s employee in central Pennsylvania sealed his fate by calling the police after a five-day nationwide manhunt. Both companies are on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) list, a movement urging people to avoid corporations complicit in human rights abuses against Palestinians. Perhaps had Mangione been a more dutiful supporter of a Free Palestine, he might have avoided the corporate trail that led police straight to him.
The incident unfolded on Dec. 4, when Thompson was shot outside a Manhattan hotel. Surveillance footage captured a masked individual approaching Thompson from behind, firing multiple shots before fleeing the scene on an e-bike. The assailant appeared proficient with firearms, suggesting premeditation. A subsequent manhunt ensued, with authorities releasing images of the suspect at Starbucks and offering rewards for information leading to an arrest.
Mangione’s capture came five days later, thanks to a McDonald’s employee (so much for class solidarity) who recognized him from circulated images and alerted the police. Upon arrest, Mangione was found in possession of a 3D-printed firearm, a suppressor, multiple fake IDs, and a manifesto expressing grievances against corporate America, particularly the healthcare industry. Notably, the weapon and suppressor matched those used in Thompson’s murder, and the fake IDs corresponded with those used during Mangione’s stay in New York.
While investigators are still piecing together the full extent of his motivations, the manifesto found on him during his arrest suggests deep frustration with the inaccessibility of care and the financial burden of medical expenses.
It’s worth noting the strange role that BDS could have played here. The movement, founded in 2005, calls for economic and cultural boycotts of companies complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. Starbucks and McDonald’s are among the corporations on the boycott list due to their ties to Israel and its policies in occupied territories. If Mangione had chosen to avoid these chains in solidarity, he might have avoided detection, lingering instead in a quieter, independent café far from public scrutiny. Instead, his patronage of these global brands directly facilitated his arrest.
Mangione’s crime has sparked an odd wave of empathy online—not for the violence itself but for the frustration that likely drove it. The U.S. healthcare system is a uniquely predatory machine, where people are denied lifesaving treatments on technicalities, forced to crowdfund surgeries, or crushed under the weight of medical debt. Allena Hansen of California, who was mauled by a bear 15-years-ago, previously stated that the worst part of her experience was not the attack, many surgeries, and years of healing, but dealing with the health insurance companies. Against this backdrop, the alleged grievances in Mangione’s manifesto resonate with a disturbingly familiar tone. What does it say when a shooter targeting a health insurance CEO garners more sympathy than the victim?
None of this excuses violence, of course. But the Ivy League graduate’s actions do force a reckoning with the desperation that can arise when people feel trapped by systemic injustice. The back pain cited in Mangione’s alleged manifesto serves as a metaphor for the crushing weight of a system that grinds people down until they snap.
Mangione could have definitely channeled his frustrations differently. The BDS movement shows how collective action can challenge entrenched power structures. Had he been part of that movement, his story might have been different. And maybe, just maybe, it’s also a reminder to skip Starbucks next time.