A Florida woman has been arrested by Lakeland police after she partially took a leaf out of Luigi Mangione’s rulebook and threatened her health insurance provider over the phone telling them: delay, deny, depose, you people are next. While Luigi Mangione allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 42-year-old ‘copycat’ Briana Boston did not harm anyone physically but has been charged with “threats to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism”.
Briana threatened her health insurance company BlueCross BlueShield on December 10 after she was refused her medical claims. The company immediately called the police who arrested Boston at her door. Boston apologized for her words and her lawyer said she was facing an overcharge as her outburst on the phone should be covered by freedom of speech.
“It’s political hyperbole. If you post something stupid on Twitter, and it’s read by somebody who may work for some company, and they’re taking it as a threat, then are we going to go and arrest every person on Twitter, because they say stupid things?” the lawyer said.
Boston is the first person charged for making copycat threat
After Brian Thompson was killed and the killer left three words in the shell casings — deny, defend, depose — making it obvious that the killing was over insurance grievances, a section of social media hailed the killer. Luigi Mangione received praise online after he was identified as the suspected killer. The social media glorification would lead to similar actions and protests — it was apprehended.
Boston did not use the exact words that Brian Thompson’s killer used but it was on a similar strain and inspired by the killing. Boston broke down after she was arrested and told investigators that “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil”. She also said she was inspired by Luigi Mangione and the current news cycle. Reports said her bond was set at $100,000 and she was facing up to 15 years behind bars.