UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting prompts questions about how to prevent copycats [Video]

As investigators continue to determine the motives and mindset that allegedly prompted Luigi Mangione to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York nearly two weeks ago, there is concern among some criminologists about the long-term impacts that public assassination could cause.

“This is a unique event,” Timothy Clancy, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), told ABC News. “It brings together many things: the targeting of a singular individual; the combined anger and grievances that people have with the health care industry; the sensationalism of the manhunt.”

That combination of factors, as well as ongoing coverage of the investigation and the suspect, could contribute to other people resorting to violence for similar grievances, Clancy and other criminology experts told ABC News. While experts said such potential radicalization is a rare occurrence for shootings involving lone actors, they also …