Cops Warn of Threats Against CEOs—and Themselves

The Pennsylvania police force that arrested alleged healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, viewed as a hero to some, says it's being threatened alongside locals tied to the arrest. "We have received some threats against our officers and building here," Derek Swope, deputy chief of the Altoona Police Department, said at a news conference Tuesday, adding "some citizens in our community" had also been threatened, per WTAJ. "We're taking all those threats seriously and doing all the follow-up we can," he said. Meanwhile, authorities in Altoona, Iowa, wanted to make clear that their small city is not related to the arrest.

"This is Altoona IOWA Police Department," reads a Tuesday post on Facebook, coming after the department was mistakenly tagged in hundreds of posts, including one by Pennsylvania's own governor, per KCCI. "We enjoy reading the tags and comments intended for PA (some of them are not so Iowa nice), but they go unread by the APD – PA, just by us Midwesterners," it continued. Police noted both McDonald's restaurants in Altoona, Iowa, had received threats, in line with attacks on the Pennsylvania McDonald's where Mangione was arrested Monday.

The NYPD warned Tuesday that Mangione's alleged action, which continues to be celebrated by some on social media, had the "capability to inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence." It said viral social media posts listed the names and salaries of eight health insurance CEOs, which some described as a hitlist, while "Wanted" signs featuring corporate executives have been posted around Manhattan, per ABC News. One Reddit post cited in the police bulletin reads, "The politicians are compromised and the corporations are suffocating us—all CEO's should be considered." (More Luigi Mangione stories.)