A Manhattan grand jury has indicted Luigi Mangione for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, court filings show.
The Manhattan Supreme Court indictment charges Mangione, 26, with first-degree murder, second degree murder as a crime of terrorism, and nine other charges related to the high-profile hit outside an entrance to the Hilton Hotel in Midtown on W. 54th St. near Sixth Ave.
The first degree murder charge is typically reserved for people accused of killing a member of law enforcement or a witness. Mangione was previously expected to be charged with second-degree murder.
Mangione is expected to waive his extradition to New York when he next appears in court in Pennsylvania on Thursday, a source told the Daily News. He has previously planned to contest it. Mangione’s lawyer, former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
NYPD officers and detectives investigate the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown on Dec. 4. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was gunned down from behind by a masked suspect as he arrived early for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference shortly before 7 a.m. on Dec. 4, footage of the killing shows.
Mangione, an Ivy league graduate from Maryland who hails from a prominent family with significant real estate holdings, has been incarcerated at a Pennsylvania correctional facility since his arrest on Dec. 9 more than 200 miles from the scene at a McDonald’s in Altoona, where a worker recognized him from widely circulated stills of surveillance footage and called 911.
When cops approached him sitting toward the back of the fast-food restaurant, he allegedly lied about who he was and presented a fake ID. After he was pressed on his identity, he admitted to his real name and was placed under arrest. He faces charges in the Keystone State related to carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, and giving cops a fake ID, but Pennsylvania prosecutors have said they will not seek to try him on those charges before his case in New York is resolved.
PA Department of Corrections, Altoona Police Department / Getty
Luigi Mangione in police custody in Pennsylvania. (PA Department of Corrections, Altoona Police Department / Getty)
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 cops also allege Mangione was also in possession of a “manifesto” laying out his reasons for the killing. He allegedly wrote that insurers had “simply gotten too powerful,” continuing to “abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has [allowed] them to get away with it.”
“Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” the missive read, the police allege.
Mangione was not a client of UnitedHealthcare, according to police, but they are investigating his experiences with the industry for potential motives. He posted on Reddit and other forums about pain he endured that led him to undergo major surgery on his spine.
Mangione’s PA-based attorney, Thomas Dickey, who could not immediately be reached for comment, has said his client is innocent and that he hasn’t personally seen anything to suggest otherwise.
Once he is extradited to New York, Mangione is expected to appear before a judge for his Supreme Court arraignment at 100 Centre St. and enter a plea to the charges.
His attorney may request that he be released on bail while he waits for his case to play out; if a judge finds he poses a flight risk, he will likely wind up awaiting trial from Rikers Island.
This developing story will be updated.
