Luigi Mangione, the suspected gunman in the high-profile assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will appear in a Pennsylvania courtroom this week amid questions over whether he will waive extradition to New York.
Mangione had previously been slated to appear for a preliminary hearing on state charges he faces in Pennsylvania on Dec. 23 but will now appear Thursday following a joint request from his defense and the prosecution, court filings show.
Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney, Thomas Dickey, last week said he would contest his extradition to New York authorities’ custody to face charges for Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown on W. 54th St. near Sixth Ave.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg later said it had appeared that was no longer the case, though the Maryland man’s attorneys in Pennsylvania and New York are yet to shed light on the matter. Gov. Hochul has said she will formally request Mangione’s extradition if and when an indictment is handed up against him in New York.
Mangione’s New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment comment. Dickey could not be reached.
AP
Brian Thompson (left) and evidence markers pictured at the scene of the shooting. (AP)
Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have charged Mangione with carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, and various low-level offenses, including giving cops a fake ID, but have said they will not seek to try him on those charges before his case in New York plays out.
Authorities say Mangione shot dead Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, as he arrived early for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference shortly before 7 a.m. the morning of the killing.
They say he fled the scene on a bike through Central Park before ditching the bicycle and taking a cab on the Upper West Side to a bus depot near the George Washington Bridge. They allege he rode a southbound A train to Penn Station and fled the city on a train.
Mangione’s family had reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November, leading an officer there to recognize him in widely-circulated images of CCTV footage days before his arrest and alert the FBI, according to the FBI.
After a five-day manhunt, the Ivy League graduate who hails from a prominent Maryland family with ties to the Republican party was arrested on Dec. 9 more than 200 miles from the scene at a McDonald’s in Altoona. According to multiple law enforcement agencies, a worker recognized him and rang 911.
He allegedly first lied about who he was and presented a fake ID, and after being pressed on his identity, he admitted to his real name, prompting his arrest, authorities say. He’s since been held at a local jail facility without bail.
Authorities allegedly recovered a 3D-printed ghost gun and silencer from Mangione’s backpack and ammunition matching shell casings at the scene, which bore the words “deny,” “delay,” and “depose,” in an apparent reference to the health insurance industry routinely denying medical care to maximize profits. The NYPD has said they’ve further tied Mangione to the scene through fingerprints recovered from a water bottle and a granola bar wrapper.
The cops allege Mangione was also in possession of a “manifesto” and various writings laying out his reasons for the alleged killing. “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” the missive read, the police allege.
Mangione has not spoken publicly outside of comments he yelled to media crews at his first court appearance last week, when he shouted something about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience.”
Some who have drawn their own interpretations of what motivated his alleged actions have hailed him as a hero, with an online crowdfunding effort raising nearly $140,000 as of Tuesday.
