Luigi Mangione, 26, is a suspect in the New York City killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson on December 10, 2024, in Holliday, Pennsylvania Escorted after an extradition hearing in Fort Blair County Court.
Eduardo Muñoz | Reuters
A New York grand jury has indicted Luigi Mangione in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Mangione, 26, is charged with one count of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and two counts of second-degree murder, including one count of homicide as a terrorist act.
He was also charged in the Manhattan Supreme Court indictment with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and possession of a forged New Jersey driver’s license.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to file documents seeking Mangione’s extradition from Pennsylvania. state.
A source familiar with the situation told NBC News on Tuesday that Mangione plans to waive extradition, which would allow him to be flown to New York within days.
Mangione, who comes from a prominent Baltimore-area family, could face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
He is accused of shooting Thompson with a 9mm handgun equipped with a silencer on Dec. 4 outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Manhattan.
Thompson, 50, was heading to a hotel to attend an investor day event for his company’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group.
“This was a killing designed to incite terror,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a news conference announcing the 11-count indictment. “This was not an ordinary killing… This was extraordinary. Ordinary.”
Bragg called the killing “brazen” and “targeted.”
He also said “we have indications” that Mangione will waive his right to an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday and agree to be sent to New York to face the murders.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that nearly two weeks after Thompson was killed, “we saw a shocking and horrific celebration of cold-blooded murder.”
Tisch pointed to the fact that Mangione has become a folk hero among some who praise Thompson’s killing as they criticize his company, the largest private health insurance company in the United States, for denying clients’ benefit claims en masse.
“Social media erupted with praise for this cowardly attack. People brutally put up posters threatening the CEO and other CEOs and drew an ‘x’ on Mr Thompson’s photo as if he was some kind of disgusting The same loot,” Tisch said.
“These are the threats of lawless, violent mobs who would trade their own lynchings in exchange for the rule of law that protects us all.”
“Let me be honest, there was nothing heroic about what Mangione did,” the commissioner said. “This was a senseless act of violence. This was a callous and calculated crime that took a life and put New Yorkers at risk. We do not celebrate murder, nor do we worship the killing of anyone.”
Mangione was arrested on December 9 after police received a call about a suspicious person at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He allegedly provided police with a fake New Jersey ID that was believed to be the same one he used when he checked into a Manhattan hotel in late November.
Police found a gun, a silencer and 9mm ammunition in his backpack. The gun matched three shell casings found outside the Manhattan shooting scene, and Mangione’s fingerprints matched those found on water bottles and snack bars near the scene, police said.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (left) and Luigi Mangione (right).
Source: UnitedHealthcare (L) | NYPD (right)
The district attorney’s office said shell casings found at the scene were marked “deny” and “discard,” while an unfired bullet was marked “delay.” These words match those used to describe strategies by health insurance companies and other insurance companies to deny customer claims.
Hours after Mangione’s arrest, Manhattan prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against him, charging him with second-degree murder, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a silencer and possession of a forged musical instrument.
A grand jury indictment filed Tuesday supersedes that complaint.
Mangione, who is being held without bail in a Pennsylvania jail on firearms and forgery charges, will appear in two separate hearings Thursday morning in Blair County Court.
The first meeting will be a preliminary hearing on state criminal charges. A second hearing, before a different judge, will deal with extradition proceedings.
On Friday, Mangione’s New York criminal defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, and her husband and law partner, Marc Agnifilo, He was visited in prison in Huntington.
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