Luigi Mangione charged with first-degree homicide in UnitedHealthcare killing

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Luigi Mangione was charged with first-degree homicide in New York for what prosecutors known as the “chilling, well-planned and focused” killing of UnitedHealthcare Chief Govt Officer Brian Thompson.

Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg mentioned the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate arrested final week by native police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, has been formally charged. one count of murder first diploma, “for inciting terrorism,” and two counts of second diploma homicide, one among which was charged with “homicide constituting an act of terrorism.” He additionally faces a number of much less critical prices, together with felony possession of a weapon.

“This was a chilling, well-planned and focused homicide, meant to trigger shock. . . and intimidation,” Bragg advised reporters Tuesday.

Essentially the most critical cost, first-degree homicide, carries a most sentence of life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. Mangione is being held with out bail in Pennsylvania and is scheduled to look in court docket Thursday morning.

New York authorities are in search of to deliver Mangione again to town to face the fees. Bragg mentioned Mangione may waive his listening to on the extradition request, which may land him in custody in New York by the top of the week.

The grand jury’s indictment – together with the choice to hunt a significant cost of first-degree homicide – highlights the seriousness with which New York authorities approached the assassination of the highest chief of the nation’s largest medical insurance firm, which shook New York. and American firms.

Bragg’s workplace additionally revealed extra particulars concerning the ongoing investigation. They mentioned Mangione, an engineering graduate, arrived in New York greater than every week earlier than Thompson’s homicide, checking into an Higher West Aspect hostel utilizing a pretend New Jersey ID on November 24.

Mangione prolonged his keep on the inn, prosecutors alleged, and left early on the morning of Dec. 4 to attend for Thompson exterior the midtown Manhattan lodge the place he was staying earlier than UnitedHealth’s investor day. Thompson was shot within the again and as soon as within the leg, and died after being taken to a hospital.

Mangione used a “3D-printed ghost gun outfitted with a 3D-printed suppressor” to shoot the chief, Bragg claimed. “These weapons are more and more proliferating in New York Metropolis and throughout the nation. . . as this case tragically reveals, they’re simply as lethal as conventional firearms,” added Bragg.

A morbid wave of appreciation and celebration proliferated certain corners of the Internet after the homicide, significantly with regard to the American healthcare system.

“We noticed a stunning and appalling celebration of cold-blooded homicide,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned Tuesday.

“We don’t have a good time homicide and we don’t condone the killing of anybody. Any try and rationalize that is despicable, reckless and offensive to our deeply held rules of justice,” she added.