NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Suspect in insurance CEO killing will fight extradition from Pennsylvania to New York; new details about Luigi Mangione, suspect in healthcare CEO killing; fire blows up in Southern California, destroying homes and forcing thousands to evacuate; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the outburst outside the courthouse as the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare's CEO is denied bail and fights extradition back to New York. Luigi Mangione dragged into a Pennsylvania courthouse today, shouting to the cameras. It's completely out of touch. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It's a life experience. The 26-year-old fighting his extradition on a murder charge, the new body cam image, the suspect eating at McDonald's before his arrest, and new details on that note found when he was captured. The potential motivation, did Mangione's own health problems play a role in this shocking crime? Our full coverage just ahead.

Also tonight, the explosive wildfire spreading in Malibu, forcing evacuations. Students at Pepperdine University sheltering inside the library as flames rage outside. The chaos in Syria after rebels seize power. Richard Engel on the desperate search inside the fallen regime's prisons for detainees who've spent decades in darkness. Jamie Foxx revealing new details about the mystery illness he says left him near death. And years after retiring, what inspired Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn to return to the slopes? This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. Tonight, there are fascinating new details about the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare's CEO and his last moments on the

run. The chance sighting, the tip, and Altoona, Pennsylvania police officers' interaction with him. And the question asked him that allegedly seemed to touch a nerve. Today, almost a week after the murder of Brian Thompson in a midtown Manhattan street, his suspected killer, Luigi Mangione, remains in custody in Pennsylvania, where a lawyer representing him says Mangione will fight extradition to New York and expects his client to plead not guilty. In the meantime, we are also learning more about those anti-corporate writings in the suspect's possession, his disregard for the health care industry and its leaders,

and what, according to senior law enforcement officials, was Mangione's praise for federal law enforcement. And today, the 26-year-old making it abundantly clear what he thinks about the case against him. Stephanie Goss begins our coverage from Pennsylvania. And, Steph, you were there. What can you tell us about his demeanor in the courtroom? Well, Lester, by the time we got to the courtroom, he was actually calm, relaxed, even smiling at times. But at one point, he tried to speak, even though the judge was not addressing him. And his defense attorney turned and snapped. Don't say a word. Alleged murderer Luigi Mangione shouting at cameras outside court today. The 26-year-old's defense attorney told a Pennsylvania judge his

client will fight extradition back to New York City. We haven't gotten any evidence. I haven't seen really anything yet. Mangione is charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunning down the 50-year-old father of two in midtown Manhattan. Today's extradition hearing taking place just 24 hours after Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The one guy said, that looks like the shooter from New York. This man says he and his friends saw him eating breakfast before police were called.

I kept thinking about it all day yesterday. How can that be? You know, I mean, here we are in this little town. One of the arresting officers only six months on the job. He was wearing a blue medical mask. As soon as we pulled that down, or we asked him to pull it down, we, me and my partner and I recognized him immediately. Then they asked him if he had been in New York City recently. That really invoked a physical reaction from the suspect. He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking at that question. According to police, Mangione had a 3D-printed weapon,

similar to the one used in the shooting, fake IDs, and three pages of handwritten notes. You see anti-corporatist sentiment, a lot of issues with the health care industry. But as to like particular specific motive, that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and months. Three senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News the notes criticize the health care industry in the U.S. and specifically United Health Care, saying in part, frankly, these parasites had it coming. Also adding to the feds, I'll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country to save you a lengthy investigation. I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone.

NYPD officials say there is no indication at this point that Mangione was working with anyone, but they have not ruled it out. The writing also including this message, I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. After reviewing hundreds of hours of video footage canvassing the city and even using dive teams in a pond in Central Park. NYPD says it was this photo, the grinning suspect checking into a hostel in New York City, that was critical to breaking the case. Up until the arrest, police had not identified him. We have been working this hard for five days and gotten hundreds of tips to our tip lines, but this was not a name that was called into us. The Mangione family releasing a short statement saying in part, we only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest.

Stephanie is outside the courthouse in Pennsylvania. Stephanie, what are the next steps for the suspect in this case? Well, Esther, he's been denied bail. He had a brief meeting with his defense attorney, and then he was sent back to state prison. But now his extradition to New York is likely going to be delayed for weeks. All right, Stephanie, thank you. And as authorities investigate what may have motivated this attack, we are learning more about the medical issues Mangione faced.

Sam Brock tonight with new insights into the suspect's background. Tonight as Luigi Mangione sits in a jail cell accused of murder, a far cry from the smiling star student and Ivy League grad, new details are coming to light about his medical issues that investigators are examining in their search for answers. What did you know about the condition of his back? I knew it was something that constantly weighed on him. It was something that impeded him from doing many things. R.J. Martin runs Surf Break on Oahu, a co-living space where he says Mangione lived for six months

in 2022. When he first arrived, Martin says Mangione aggravated a back issue during an introductory surf lesson. He says at points, the Maryland native had a hard time sitting When he first arrived, Martin says Mangione aggravated a back issue during an introductory surf lesson. He says at points, the Maryland native had a hard time sitting up straight and struggled to have an intimate relationship. When Martin checked in on his friend nine months ago to see if he had surgery, he says the 26-year-old sent him an x-ray. Harling, it just broke my heart to know he had these three-inch screws in his spine. Two senior law enforcement officials say they are investigating a picture of an X-ray posted to the suspect's social media account, whether it's his and if it's part of a motive.

As mystery shrouds the places Mangione's lived. Well, what we know so far is that he has ties to Maryland. He has ties to Hawaii and ties to San Francisco, California. We know he attended college in Pennsylvania, and we know that he has no prior criminal history, not only in New York City, but in the country. A neighbor from Hawaii says he last saw Mangione three to four months ago. I just asked him where he's been, and for like six months, he was like on the mainland, like he just said medical stuff. And his former classmates at the prestigious All Boys Gilman School outside of Baltimore, equally blindsided. I can tell you that this is one of the last people you'd think would do something like this.

You know, he was one of the nicest kids, most friendly kids that I had known at Gilman. The high school valedictorian is part of a large and wealthy family with businesses across real estate, country clubs, and nursing homes. The NYPD and friends and family alike now trying to put the pieces of Luigi Mangione's path together. How saddening, how shocking to you personally, RJ, after the months and years spent together to learn all of this? He was such a bright person. He had everything going for him. He was the kind of person that we, you know, you would know was going to do great things. Sam Brock, NBC News, New York. We're in Los Angeles today where a fast-moving wildfire in nearby Malibu has forced the evacuation of some 2,000 structures. With much of Southern California under red flag warnings, the fire burning from the ocean to mountain canyons.

I was on the fire lines. Growing with ferocious speed and fueled by extreme Santa Ana winds, a life-threatening wildfire is accelerating through the hills and canyons of Malibu. The so-called Franklin Fire exploding to more than 2,700 acres in a matter of hours. This entire place, everywhere you look, there's flames. Surrounded, Alec Gallus scrambled to protect his home. Fires up in the mountains over there behind us. Fires over there. That house is on fire.

Fires up in the canyon over there. And not a lot of ways in and out of this area. Not a lot of ways in and out of this area. Not a lot of ways in and out. With several homes burning, thousands of residents were forced to flee in the middle of the night. The winds and fire were extraordinarily fierce overnight here. They've gotten a bit of a break during the day, but in canyons like this, this fire is essentially making its own winds, propelling the flames up hillside, as you can see there. Wind gusts reached at least 50 miles per hour, sending embers ahead of the front lines, sparking new fires, flaring out of control, and jumping across roads and canyons. I woke up and

she was yelling that we need to get out of here. And across the canyon, the flames were just crazy. At Pepperdine University, tense moments for some 800 students sheltering in place as the fire approached a campus library. The air attack critical to protect homes and lives. The smoke was so, so thick and just like all that, all everything was just orange, orange, orange. And then the wind picked up and the wind was just like flying ambers everywhere. Linda Michelle had just minutes to escape. The fire destroying the guest house where she lived,

but sparing the horses and other buildings on the property. Just finally relieved, you know, just you're thinking for the worst and you come back and you're like, oh God, there's still something here. So many families on high alert tonight. The red flag warning remains in effect until tomorrow evening. In Syria, the brutal repression of the fallen Assad regime is being exposed, with families desperately trying to find out the fate of missing loved ones. Richard Engel takes us inside one of Syria's most notorious prisons. Thousands of Syrians today came to the Saydnaya prison outside Damascus to search for missing relatives.

This is where the brutal regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad sent those who dared oppose him to disappear. A man held handfuls of nooses he found made of cheap nylon cord. Some were freshly used and still bloody. What did we do to deserve this, he asked. Amnesty International dubbed Sayydnaya a human slaughterhouse. And now that Assad is gone, Syrians and the world can see the cruelty of his regime. They're describing this as a human press, a torture device that prisoners like this man is demonstrating here would be put on this slab and then crushed in order to torture them. In another torture room, Amal showed me a photo of her son Milad missing for more than 10 years. He was sentenced for being a militant. My son was

a nurse, she says. The squalid cells are now empty, broken open by the rebels Monday when hundreds of prisoners were freed. But families believe or want to believe their relatives may still be hidden in here. They broke holes in the walls searching for secret rooms and basements. They didn't find any. Instead, they found paperwork. All over here, there are documents. It seems like this place was abandoned in a hurry. And if you come in here, you can see with flashlights,

everyone is just searching for any evidence that their loved ones may have been here, may have been executed here. This woman says her son was taken here in 2013 and never seen again. I'm looking for evidence to give me hope he's still alive, she says. On their hands and knees, Syrians today searched for signs of life, poring over logbooks and records. So many names, so many tragedies, Syria's blackest site finally exposed. A Syrian human rights group says that most of this country's 100,000 missing prisoners are likely dead. Lester.

Richard Engel reporting. In the meantime, Israel says it's carrying out airstrikes in Syria, including destroying the Assad regime's chemical weapons sites to keep them out of the hands of extremists. All while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified for the first time in his long-running corruption trial for alleged fraud and bribery, he has denied those charges. Also this evening, actor Jamie Foxx opening up about the mystery illness that left him near death last year. The Oscar winner revealing for the first time in a new Netflix special that he suffered a, quote, brain bleed that led to a stroke, leaving him hospitalized for weeks. Fox said doctors still don't know the exact cause. And coming up as we continue tonight, a dark side of AI.

Parents sue a Google-backed company claiming its chatbots harmed their children. That's next. We're back now with a new lawsuit that speaks to some of the worst fears about artificial intelligence. Parents alleging a chatbot encouraged their child to commit self-harm and violence. And tonight, our Laura Jarrett puts that app to the test. A clear and present danger to American youth. That's the blistering claim against a popular chatbot service, Character AI, now sued over disturbing content that parents say artificial intelligence pushes to children and teens. At the heart of the case, a feature on the app that allows users to chat with seemingly human-like characters known as companion chatbots.

But according to the lawsuit, a bot coaxed a previously happy teenage boy into engaging in self-harm by cutting himself. The bot telling him, quote, it felt good and appearing to sympathize with the teen's complaints. His parents had limited screen time, allegedly writing. I'm not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse. Lawyers for the parents say this isn't a design flaw, but the direct result of underlying design choices. What we see is that it sends these kids down these terrible rabbit holes. I tried out the app myself. I decided to go with a Roman playwright and I asked him, are you real? All right, we're chatting. And he says, of course I am real, you dolt. Google, also named in the lawsuit for its direct investment in Character AI,

distanced itself from the app, saying the two are completely separate, unrelated companies, and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies. Character AI declined to comment on the lawsuit but pushed back on the claim that the company has failed to establish safeguards for teens, saying, We are introducing new safety features for users under 18 in addition to the tools already in place. Before you can even sign into the app, a birthday is required. But lawyers for the parents say that's not enough, as it does nothing to verify user ages.

Laura Jarrett, NBC News. We'll take a break right here then. Coming up, skiing legend Lindsey Vonn coming out of retirement at age 40. What she says about her comeback next. Nearly six years after she retired, there's good news tonight about Olympic skiing legend Lindsey Vonn and Thompson now with her comeback on the slopes. Lindsey Vonn is going fast again, skiing competitively at the age of 40, leaving retirement behind, but not quite sure where she is going. I mean, I honestly never thought it was going to happen. So I'm just as surprised as everyone else.

Lindsey Vonn coming down. At her first major race back in Colorado, Vonn finished far from the podium in the downhill and Super G, but good enough to qualify for the World Cup. Welcome back. To the doubters, she says she's just getting started. I'm really enjoying this journey. You know, no one's ever done this with a knee replacement before,

so I honestly don't know how far I can take it, but so far, it's been incredible. Skiing, she says, with that new knee and a lack of pain from a career's worth of injuries. I am having so much fun going fast again. With the Olympics just 14 months away, this four-time Olympian with three medals is tamping down the inevitable speculation about the upcoming games in Italy. I don't know where it's going to lead, but I am so happy to be not in pain anymore and to do the thing I love most, which is skiing. And the thrill of competition. Ann Thompson, NBC News.

It'll be fun to watch her come back. That is nightly news for this Tuesday. Thank you for watching, everyone. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.