A striking lookalike to suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione sparked backlash with mocking videos pretending to be the alleged assassin.
TikTok influencer @goobigubbi went viral in the wake of the assassination of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, with one clip garnering over 8.3 million views.
When the search for Mangione was still ongoing, the influencer shared a clip with his mom freaking out at him as he refused to change clothes that matched surveillance images shared by the NYPD.
As he met his mom in her car with a dark green jacket and dark hood, she reacted: ‘Jake, nuh uh, go back and change… this is serious now.’
At the same moment, the TikToker contorted a smile that appeared eerily similar to smiling images allegedly showing Mangione in a New York City hostel before last Wednesday’s shooting.
The video was met with backlash from some observers, with one commenter on Instagram branding Jake a ‘clown.’
‘Hope you’re actually taken in as a person of interest,’ they added.
It comes after Mangione was arrested and charged with Thompson’s murder on Monday after being spotted by a McDonald’s worker, before cops say they found an anti-healthcare manifesto in his bag.
TikTok influencer @GoobiGubbi went viral in the aftermath of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson with his striking resemblance to the suspect
The TikToker’s mockery of the assassination sparked backlash from some, with one commenter branding him a ‘clown’
The influencer mocked his similarities to surveillance images released by the NYPD of the alleged assassin checking into a hostel before the shooting
The man charged with Thompson’s murder was revealed Monday to be Ivy-league educated 26-year-old Luigi Mangione (pictured)
In his viral TikTok, Jake’s mom went on to warn her son that ‘a lot of people’ had been ‘DM-ing me, messaging me’, feeling he looked similar to the shooter’s surveillance pictures.
‘This is not funny,’ she continued as he carried on mocking the assassin.
‘Oh my god, what don’t you understand,’ she said, to which he responded: ‘Oh my god, let him live.’
He added: ‘The person it was done to did a lot worse, to the entire country.’
The negative sentiment toward the victim in the aftermath of his murder from certain sections of social media, as seen in the TikTok, has been condemned as people urge sympathy for the slain father-of-two.
In response to the TikTok, another commenter questioned: ‘So is this where we’re at as a country now?’
‘Celebrating murdering someone because you don’t like their business dealings?
‘I hated everything about UHC as much as the next person, but treating this shooter like a hero?
‘I thought we we’d already hit a low here, but I guess I was wrong. This is disgusting.’
Mangione (seen in his mugshot) was arrested and charged with Thompson’s murder on Monday after being spotted by a McDonald’s worker, before cops say they found an anti-healthcare manifesto in his bag
UnitedHealthcare CEO and father-of-two Brian Thompson, 50, was shot dead last Wednesday morning in a brazen assassination outside Manhattan’s Hilton Hotel
Others said the TikToker bore a striking resemblance with the alleged assassin, as they callously called for him to enter the controversial lookalike contest held for the suspect in Manhattan on Saturday.
The tasteless event was held in Washington Square Park, at the time when the search for the killer was still ongoing in the city in its fourth day.
Eight contestants entered the event where they were seen donning hooded jackets and face masks in an attempt to look like the then-at-large assassin.
The winner declared after victory: ‘There was a post about a lookalike competition, I thought I could probably shave my moustache and put on my normal outfit… supposedly there was money involved and I said I would give half to Palestinian relief.’
Others sparked backlash by seemingly celebrating Thompson’s death, with ex-Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz coming under fire for her response.
Lorenz, once a rising star on the internet beat, issued a series of controversial posts on Bluesky shortly after Thompson was assassinated, including sharing her group chat’s response.
‘Woke up to see this spammed in my group chats,’ Lorenz wrote alongside a celebratory image that read, ‘CEO DOWN.’
‘People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering,’ she wrote on a different post.
‘As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it.’
In perhaps the most shocking post, Lorenz shared a news report about Blue Cross Blue Shield announcing they would not cover anesthesia for the full length of certain surgeries in some states.
Lorenz then added the information and picture of Blue Cross CEO Kim Keck in an apparent attempt to send an online mob in the medical executive’s direction, before insisting she only wanted people to write in ‘peacefully’ to complain.
She wrote: ‘And people wonder why we want these executives dead.’
