The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is returning to New York to face murder charges after agreeing to be extradited Thursday during a court appearance in Pennsylvania where he was arrested last week after five days on the run.
Luigi Mangione waived his right to an extradition hearing and was immediately turned over to at least a dozen New York Police Department officers who were in the courtroom and quickly led him to a waiting SUV.
Mangione glanced back and forth while being ushered outside to begin his trip to New York, but he stepped quietly into the SUV, contrasting his last court appearance when he struggled with deputies and shouted at reporters.
He then boarded a small plane used by the NYPD and was bound for the New York area.
Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks said he wanted to turn Mangione over to New York authorities as soon as possible. Weeks said he was willing to put the Pennsylvania charges on hold.
“He is now in their custody. He will go forth with New York to await trial or prosecution for his homicide and related charges in New York,” Weeks said.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate is accused of ambushing and shooting Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 outside a Manhattan hotel where the head of the United States’ largest medical insurance company was walking to an investor conference.
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Authorities have said Mangione was carrying the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport, fake IDs and about $10,000 when he was arrested while eating breakfast on Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione, who initially fought attempts to extradite him, made two brief court appearances Thursday, first waiving a preliminary hearing on forgery and firearms charges before agreeing to be sent back to New York.
There he has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism and could face life in prison without parole if he’s convicted.
Investigators believe Mangione was motivated by anger toward the U.S. health care system and corporate greed. But he was never a UnitedHealthcare client, according to the insurer.
The killing ignited an outpouring of stories about resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies while also shaking corporate America after some social media users called the shooting payback.
Video of the attack showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind and then firing several more shots. The suspect eluded police despite authorities widely circulating photos of his unmasked face until Mangione was captured in Altoona, about 277 miles (446 kilometers) west of New York.
Mangione, a computer science graduate from a prominent Maryland family, was carrying a handwritten letter that called health insurance companies “parasitic” and complained about corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press last week.
One of his lawyers has cautioned the public against prejudging the case.
Mangione repeatedly posted on social media about how spinal surgery last year had eased his chronic back pain, encouraging people with similar conditions to speak up for themselves if told they just had 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, say 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 key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”
He apparently cut himself off from his family and close friends in recent months. His family reported him missing in San Francisco in November. His relatives have said in a statement that they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.
Thompson, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, was trained as an accountant. A married father of two high-schoolers, he had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.
—Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writers Mike Rubinkam in Allentown, Pennsylvania; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; contributed.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
