(NEXSTAR) — Quick-fashion retailer Shein says it has eliminated a list for a males’s short-sleeve shirt after discovering {that a} third-party vendor was utilizing Luigi Mangione’s likeness to mannequin the merchandise.
The product itemizing, which is now not lively, featured a picture that appeared to point out a person resembling Mangione modeling a “Men’s New Spring/Summer Short Sleeve Blue Ditsy Floral White Shirt,” based on an archive of the Shein web site. It was unclear how the picture was created; customers on social media have speculated that the picture of the “model” was AI–generated.
A consultant for Shein didn’t say how they believed the picture was created.
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“The image in question was provided by a third-party vendor and was removed immediately upon discovery,” a Shein spokesperson wrote in an announcement obtained by Nexstar’s WPIX. “We have stringent standards for all listings on our platform. We are conducting a thorough investigation, strengthening our monitoring processes, and will take appropriate action against the vendor in line with our policies.”
Luigi Mangione seems in court docket for a listening to, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Put up by way of AP, Pool, File)
Mangione, 27, has been accused of killing former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down in New York Metropolis in December 2024. Mangione has pleaded not responsible to state and federal expenses. He’s presently being held with out bail in a Brooklyn detention heart.
The killing of Thompson, who led one of many greatest well being insurers within the U.S., resulted in an enormous outpouring of public frustration with the nation’s well being care system. Many Individuals reacted to the taking pictures by relaying private tales about troublesome experiences with insurance coverage firms. Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland actual property household, has additionally been lionized as a form of vigilante hero by those that are essential of the insurance coverage business.
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Final week, prosecutors submitted a submitting claiming that Mangione has impressed others to embrace violence, citing July’s lethal mass taking pictures on the Nationwide Soccer League headquarters.
“Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,” they stated. “Since the murder, certain quarters of the public — who openly identify as acolytes of the defendant — have increasingly begun to view violence as an acceptable, or even necessary, substitute for reasoned political disagreement.”
Prosecutors plan to argue that Mangione deserves the loss of life penalty in federal court docket. No federal trial date has been set.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
