Pharmacy Worker Shot by Disgruntled Customer

Madera, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – A California pharmacy worker is dead after being gunned down by a man with a grudge against large pharmacies.

As U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directs the federal government to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year.

In California, police said Narciso Gallardo Fernandez walked into the Walgreens in Madera around 9:30 p.m. on March 31 with a handgun in his pocket. Officials said from there, Fernandez shot out a security camera, and then allegedly shot and killed Erick Velasquez, a store employee. Fernandez then fired his gun at other store employees as they tried to escape the store, officials said, while bystanders sheltered in place.

Officials said the attack was captured on surveillance video which showed Fernandez waving his gun at the camera, saying something inaudible and then shooting out the camera at the front of the store. No one else was injured in the shooting, officials said.

Velasquez died at the store, officials said. He was not a pharmacy worker, and the pharmacy was closed at the time of the shooting.

Police said they found the suspect in the parking lot, reloading his gun, and arrested him. Fernandez allegedly told investigators he hates big pharmacies, Madera Police Chief Giachino Chiaramonte told ABC News. The chief said he doesn’t believe the shooting was inspired by Mangione though.

Mangione inspired a nationwide manhunt in November when he shot Thompson as he was walking into the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan for a shareholders meeting. Authorities said Mangione stalked Thompson and waited for him to cross the street, shot him in the back as he entered the hotel, and then disappeared into the streets of the most surveilled city in America.

After a week of hunting for him, Mangione was captured at a Latrobe McDonald’s after a worker recognized him and turned him into officials. When he was arrested, police recovered a “ghost gun” as well as writings that articulated a well-laid plan to kill the executive with bullets labeled “deny,” “delay,” and “depose.” He was extradited back to New York City where he was arrested and charged with several federal and state charges.

His crime and capture resulted in an outpouring of hostility toward pharmaceutical companies and forced numerous changes for drug companies, including wiping pictures and contact information for executives off company websites. Mangione has received support for his crime and has a growing fan base who have helped him raise more than $700,000 toward his legal bills.

To that end, Mangione added Avraham Moskowitz to his legal team in February. Moskowitz has represented more than 50 defendants facing the death penalty in New York.

Mangione is being held in Brooklyn, and officials have said he will go to court in New York first to face state charges there. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 11 counts, including murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree, as well as weapons and forgery charges. If convicted in New York, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Officials said the first-degree murder charges alleges he killed Thompson “in furtherance of an act of terrorism,” which is defined as intent to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or a government unit.

In January President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the attorney general to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.” Mangione’s case is the first one in Trump’s second administration related to the federal death penalty.

During his first term, the Trump administration executed 13 inmates in the final months of 2020, the first federal executions in nearly two decades.

Experts said federal death penalty cases are relatively unusual but have been pursued by the DOJ under both Democrat and Republican administrations.

Since Mangione’s crime, officials have said he’s inspired copycat actions.

In December 2024, a 42-year-old Florida woman was arrested and charged with threats to conduct an act of terrorism after she threatened an employee of her insurance provider.

Briana Boston allegedly threatened a phone representative of Blue Cross Blue Shield after her medical claim was denied. “Delay, deny, depose – you people are next,” officials alleged. When confronted about the call, Boston said health care companies are “evil” and “deserve karma.”

Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor who arrested and charged Boston said the woman wasn’t a child and should have known better. “She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” he said.

In California, prosecutors charged Fernandez with murder and attempted murder, both with a gun enhancement.

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