The man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare 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 was already accused of murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson, but the terror charge is new.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson's death on a midtown Manhattan street "was an intent-to-terror killing. And we've seen that reaction."
"This was a terrifying, well-planned and targeted killing intended to cause shock, attention and intimidation," he told a news conference on Tuesday.
"It happened in one of the busiest areas of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike, commuters and business people just starting their day."
Mangione's New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment.
Thompson, 50, had shot dead as he walked to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare, America's largest health insurer, was holding an investor conference.
The killing ignited a fiery outpouring of resentment toward America's health insurance companies, as Americans shared stories online and elsewhere about being denied coverage, left in limbo when doctors and insurers disagreed and got stuck with big bills.
The firing has also rattled C-suites, as "wanted" signs with the names and faces of other healthcare executives appeared on the streets of New York and some social media users praised Mangione's act as compensation.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday that "any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice."
Law after September 11
A New York law passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks allows prosecutors to charge crimes as acts of terrorism when they are "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affecting the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination, or kidnapping."
Prosecutors have used the statute in a variety of contexts. Some were linked to international extremism, but the law was used for the first time against a Bronx gang member after a barrage of gunfire killed a 10-year-old girl and paralyzed a man outside a party baptism in 2002. The state's highest court later said the conduct did not amount to terrorism, and a new trial resulted in convictions on other charges.
Thompson's killing, Bragg noted, occurred early on a weekday in an area frequented by commuters, businessmen and tourists.
"This was a terrifying, well-planned and targeted murder intended to cause shock, attention and intimidation," the district attorney said.
Arrested in a McDonald's
After days of intense police searches and publicity, Mangione was discovered on December 9 at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested. NYPD officials have said Mangione was carrying the gun used in Thompson's murder, a passport and several fake IDs, including one the alleged shooter presented to check into a New York hostel.
The 26-year-old was charged with felony forgery and forgery with weapons in Pennsylvania and is being held there without bail. His attorney in Pennsylvania has questioned the evidence on the forgery charge and the legal basis for the weapons charge. The lawyer also said Mangione would fight extradition to New York.
Mangione has two court hearings scheduled for Thursday in Pennsylvania, including an extradition hearing, Bragg said.
Hours after his arrest, the Manhattan district attorney's office filed charges charging him with murder and other crimes. The indictment is based on this documentation.
Investigators' working theory is that Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a prominent Maryland family, was driven by anger against the U.S. health care system. A law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press this week said that when he was arrested, he was carrying a handwritten letter calling health insurance companies "parasites" and complaining about corporate greed.
Mangione posted repeatedly on social media about how spinal surgery last year had eased her chronic back pain, encouraging people with similar conditions to speak up for themselves if they're told they just have to live with it .
In a Reddit post in late April, he advised someone with a back problem to seek additional opinions from surgeons and, if necessary, said the pain made it impossible to work.
"We live in a capitalist society," Mangione wrote. "I've found that the medical industry responds to these keywords with much more urgency than you do to describe excruciating pain and how it's affecting your quality of life."
He was never a customer of UnitedHealthcare, according to the insurer.
Mangione apparently became estranged from his family and close friends in recent months. Her family reported her missing in San Francisco in November.
After San Francisco authorities received a tip from their counterparts in New York, investigators spoke with Mangione's mother in San Francisco on the afternoon of December 7. In that interview, he "said it might be something I could see him doing," the New York Police Department. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday.
Before detectives on the case could follow up on that lead, Mangione was arrested, Kenny said.
Mangione's family said in a statement that they were "shocked and devastated" by his arrest.
Thompson, who grew up on a farm in small-town Iowa, trained as an accountant. A married father of two high school students, he had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.
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