The accused killer of a health insurance CEO has made a dramatic initial court appearance in the US, yelling to the waiting media as he was escorted into the building.
Luigi Mangione, 26, has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on December 4.
He was arrested yesterday in Pennsylvania after police received a tip he was in a McDonalds in Altoona, after several days on the run.
Police said that at the time of his arrest, he was in possession of a gun similar to that believed to have killed Thompson, along with a silencer, several fake IDs, and writings expressing anger towards US corporations.
He now faces extradition from Pennsylvania to New York City, though he also faces charges in the former state including gun possession, forgery, and providing false ID.
Outside court, Mangione appeared to struggle with officers.
He shouted something that was partly unintelligible, but referred to an "insult to the intelligence of the American people."
Mangione's lawyer, Tom Dickey, declined to comment on the case ahead of the hearing but said he would discuss it later.
In addition to a three-page, handwritten document that suggests he harbored "ill will toward corporate America," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said yesterday that Mangione also had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home and is difficult to trace.
What do we know about Mangione?
Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and that his last known address is in Honolulu.
Mangione, who was valedictorian of his Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press.
Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978.
Mangione likely was motivated by his anger with what he called "parasitic" health insurance companies and a disdain with corporate greed, said a law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.
He wrote that the US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while "our life expectancy" does not, according to the bulletin, which was based on a review of the suspect's hand-written notes and social media postings.
The defendant appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown and may have been inspired by "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, whom he called a "political revolutionary," the document said.
The shooting and a quick escape
Police said the person who killed Thompson left a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 5.41am last Wednesday local time.
Eleven minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, wearing a distinctive backpack.
At 6.44am, he shot Thompson at a side entrance to the hotel, fled on foot, then climbed aboard a bicycle and within four minutes had entered Central Park, according to police.
Another security camera recorded the gunman leaving the park near the American Museum of Natural History at 6.56am still on the bicycle but without the backpack, police said.
After getting in a taxi, he headed north to a bus terminal near the George Washington Bridge, arriving at around 7.30am.
From there, the trail of video evidence runs cold. Police have not located video of the suspect exiting the building, leading them to believe he likely took a bus out of town. Police said they are still investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania.
"This just happened this morning," Kenny said. "We'll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania," Kenny said.
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