Luigi Mangione is charged with murder as an act of terrorism

The man accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said Tuesday as they worked to bring him to a New York court from a Pennsylvania prison.

Luigi Mangione He has already been charged with murder in the killing of Brian Thompson on December 4, but the terrorism allegation is new.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson’s death on a downtown Manhattan street “was a murder designed to incite terror. We saw that reaction.”

“This was a chilling, well-planned and targeted murder that was intended to shock, interest and intimidate,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“The accident occurred in one of the busiest areas of our city and threatened the safety of locals, tourists alike, commuters and business people just starting their day.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s New York lawyer, declined to comment.

Thompson was 50 years old He was shot dead As he walked to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare, the largest medical insurer in the United States, was holding an investor conference.

The murder ignited a wave of resentment toward American health insurance companies, as Americans shared stories online and elsewhere about being denied coverage, left in limbo with different doctors and insurance companies, and faced with huge bills.

The shooting also shook top officials, with “wanted” posters bearing the names and faces of other health care executives appearing on the streets of New York, and some social media users hailing Mangione’s action as retaliation.

“Any attempt to justify this is despicable, reckless and insulting to our established principles of justice,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Tuesday.

Post-9/11 law

A New York law passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001 allows prosecutors to charge crimes as acts of terrorism when they are intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population, and to influence the policies of a governmental unit by intimidation or coercion.” Affect the behavior of a government unit by killing, assassination or kidnapping.”

Prosecutors have used the law in a variety of contexts. Some relate to international extremism, but the law was first used against a Bronx gang member after a hail of gunfire killed a 10-year-old girl and paralyzed a man outside a christening party in 2002. The state’s highest court later said this The behavior was not intentional. The matter did not rise to the level of terrorism, and a retrial resulted in convictions on other charges.

Bragg noted that Thompson’s killing occurred early on a workday in an area frequented by commuters, businessmen and tourists.

“This was a chilling, well-planned and targeted murder that was intended to shock, interest and intimidate,” the district attorney said.

He was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant

After days of intense police searches and publicity, Mangione was spotted on December 9 at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested. NYPD officials said Mangione carried the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport and several fake IDs, including the one the suspected shooter presented when entering a New York motel.

The 26-year-old was charged with gun and forgery crimes in Pennsylvania and was held there without bail. His attorney in Pennsylvania has questioned the evidence of the forgery charge and the legal basis for the gun charge. The lawyer also said Mangione will fight extradition to New York.

Bragg noted that Mangione is scheduled to have two court hearings on Thursday in Pennsylvania, including an extradition hearing.

Hours after his arrest, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed papers charging him with murder and other crimes. The indictment is based on those papers.

The investigators’ working theory is that Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a prominent Maryland family, was motivated by anger at the U.S. health care system. A law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said that when he was arrested, he was carrying a handwritten letter that called health insurance companies “parasitic” and complained about corporate greed.

Mangione has repeatedly posted on social media how last year’s spine surgery helped relieve chronic back pain, and he encouraged people with similar conditions to speak up for themselves if they’re told they have to live with it.

In a Reddit post in late April, he advised someone with a back problem to get additional opinions from surgeons and, if necessary, say the pain makes it impossible to work.

“We live in a capitalist society,” Mangione wrote. “I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these keywords much more urgently than your description of unbearable pain and how it affects your quality of life.”

He was never a customer of UnitedHealthcare, according to the insurer.

It is clear that Mangione has isolated himself from his family and close friends in recent months. His family reported him missing in San Francisco in November.

After San Francisco authorities obtained information for their counterparts in New York, investigators spoke to Mangione’s mother in San Francisco late on December 7. In that interview, “she said it might be something she could see him doing,” the New York Police Department said. Tuesday, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said.

Before case investigators could pursue that matter, Mangione was arrested, Kenney said.

Mangione’s relatives said in a statement that they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.

Thompson, who grew up on a farm in a small town in Iowa, was trained as an accountant. A married father of two high school seniors, he has worked at conglomerate giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.