Social media users have been drawing comparisons between online support for accused killers Elias Rodriguez, Rodney Hinton Jr. and Luigi Mangione.
“The notion that individuals who commit murder are receiving any notable public backing, seemingly due to the perception that their victims are associated with opposing political views, is a deeply troubling indication for our society,” said Nicholas Creel, an ethics professor at Georgia College and State University, in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Democracy hinges on our commitment to certain principles, including resolving differences peacefully. Absent this, we face the danger of a more widespread collapse of the rule of law, potentially leading to mass atrocities.”
Rodriguez, a 31-year-old from Chicago, stands accused of the fatal shootings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who were engaged and employed at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. The tragic incident occurred on Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum.
Mangione, 26, faces charges of first-degree murder as part of a terrorist act, alongside stalking and multiple other state and federal offenses in both New York and Pennsylvania. He is accused of the December 4, 2024, fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old husband and father of two, on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Paul Mauro, former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital that Mangione, Rodriguez, Hinton and Crooks represent “a very specialized class of violent losers.”
Rodney Hinton Jr. has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of retired Hamilton County Deputy Larry Henderson. (Phil Didion/The Enquirer/Imagn)
“At some point, everybody’s been down in their luck,” Mauro said. “But … when you are in and around 30 years old, and you are still clinging to these adolescent beliefs about the world and how you are on the side of the righteous because you are a member of a particular internet forum, and you’re willing to … extinguish the lives of others … you’re going to take away loved ones from families. Well, I’m sorry, but you guys are in a class by yourselves.”
He added that law enforcement professionals have seen such activity by young radicals “developing” since about 2020.
Mauro also said officials should be following the money that U.S. colleges and universities are receiving from nongovernment organizations and whether any of that funding comes from U.S. adversaries, such as Iran.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on then-former President Donald Trump. (Bethel Park School District)
The former NYPD inspector noted that Rodriguez, Mangione, Crooks and, to an extent, Hinton are all relatively young men who had “their whole lives ahead of them” before allegedly hunting down people they believed to be their political or personal “opponents.”
“They weaponize these college kids who are susceptible and naive and who have never really been scuffed up by the real world,” Mauro said. “And in many cases, they don’t want to be. They don’t really want to go out and get jobs and do all the stuff that we did. … And they stay in this hyperprogressive bubble thinking that they’re on the side of the righteous. And then what happens is they manage to survive.”
Creel and Rynarzewska similarly noted that young people who are lonely or isolated tend to find a sense of community in people who share radical views online.
“From a bigger societal perspective, that’s where we really see the destructive influence on … youth,” Creel said. “When you’re young, you’re developing your sense of the world. You’re coming to figure out, when you come of age, what’s acceptable, what’s not. That’s when norms are being developed, your values take hold. And so, because of that, when you see these far more fringe-type positions of people supporting violence – murder, even – that becomes one of those things that then you think is normalized.”
Mangione and Hinton have pleaded not guilty to their respective crimes. Fox News Digital has reached out to their attorneys for comment.
