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Luigi Mangione was transported to New York on Thursday where he faces federal murder charges over the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, in a case that has garnered global attention.
Federal prosecutors unveiled four charges against Mangione, including murder by firearm and stalking. The Manhattan district attorney obtained a separate indictment against Mangione in state court earlier this week in connection with the murder of Thompson, who led the country’s largest health insurer.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate was set to make his first appearance in New York federal court on Thursday afternoon. He was transported to the state earlier in the day after waiving his right to an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week.
The case has garnered a mixture of outrage and sympathy as authorities look to piece together the reason for the killing of Thompson at dawn on a busy street in Midtown Manhattan, as he headed to UnitedHealth’s investor conference.
There has been a morbid outpouring of admiration from some quarters for Mangione, whose arrest followed a five-day manhunt, among Americans aggrieved with the state of the country’s costly healthcare system.
The federal complaint unsealed on Thursday charged Mangione with one count of murder through use of a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm and two counts of stalking.
The New York state charges unveiled earlier this week include first-degree murder “in furtherance of an act of terrorism”, and two counts of second- degree murder. Manhattan state prosecutors have described Thompson’s killing as a “brazen targeted and premeditated” crime and urged the public not to lionise Mangione.
“There is no heroism in what Mangione did,” New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference earlier this week.
The federal complaint cites much of the same evidence allegedly tying Mangione to the crime that state authorities had previously presented. When he was arrested in Pennsylvania, authorities said they found the same fake New Jersey ID card used by the suspected shooter to check in to a New York hostel ahead of the murder; a gun and silencer consistent with the one believed to have been used against Thompson; and clothing matching the items worn by the shooter as captured on video.
The federal complaint also said that when Mangione was arrested he was in possession of a notebook outlining his intention to “wack” the chief executive of one of the insurance companies present at a conference in New York this month.
The notebook also stated that “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box”, and described the conference as “a true windfall”, according to the complaint.
