Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday vowed to haul suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione back to New York to face newly announced terrorism charges.
Mangione, who remains jailed in Pennsylvania following a dayslong manhunt, was already charged with murder in the Dec. 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in New York City. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Wednesday announced an indictment tacking on allegations of terrorism. Bragg extended “heartfelt prayers” to Thompson’s family and said that “this type of premeditated, targeted gun violence cannot and will not be tolerated.”
“Now that @ManhattanDA has filed an indictment for the murder of Brian Thompson, New York stands ready to do whatever it takes to hold the killer accountable,” Hochul wrote on X Thursday. “We’ve heard reports that the defendant will waive his extradition rights. If not, I am prepared to request a governor’s warrant as soon as possible to ensure he is held and tried in New York.”
Thompson, 50, was shot while walking to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare — the United States’ biggest medical insurer — was holding an investor conference.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE INDICTED IN NEW YORK
The killing led to a fiery outpouring of resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies, as Americans swapped stories online and elsewhere of being denied coverage, left in limbo as doctors and insurers disagreed, and stuck with sizable bills.
The shooting also rattled C-suites, as “wanted” posters with other health care executives’ names and faces appeared on New York streets, and some social media users extolled Mangione’s deed as payback.
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.”
A New York law passed after the 9/11 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 affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping.”
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT HAS OUTBURST OUTSIDE PENNSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE
After days of intense police searches and publicity, Mangione was spotted Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested. New York police officials have said Mangione was carrying the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport and various fake IDs, including one that the suspected shooter presented to check into a New York hostel.
The 26-year-old was charged in Pennsylvania on gun and forgery offenses and locked up there without bail. His Pennsylvania lawyer has questioned the evidence for the forgery charge and the legal grounding for the gun charge. The attorney also has said Mangione would fight extradition to New York.
Mangione has two court hearings scheduled for Thursday in Pennsylvania, including an extradition hearing, Bragg noted.
Hours after his arrest, the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed paperwork charging him with murder and other offenses. The indictment builds on that.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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