Luigi Mangione was indicted on upgraded charges of murder as an act of terrorism for the brazen execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street, authorities said Tuesday.
A grand jury charged Mangione, 26, with first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the cold-blooded slaying of the 50-year-old health insurance executive outside the Hilton in Midtown on Dec. 4, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
“This was a frightening, well-planned targeted murder that was intended to cause shock, attention and intimidation,” Bragg said during a news conference.
“In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to provoke terror, and we’ve seen that reaction,” he continued. “This was not an ordinary killing. … This was extraordinary.”
Mangione — a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a well-heeled Maryland family — is accused of using a 9mm 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a homemade silencer to fatally shoot Thompson as he walked to the hotel on Sixth Avenue, near West 54th Street, where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company was holding its annual investor conference.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch — while flashing a copy of The Post’s Monday front page about a twisted card game of “the most wanted CEOs” — condemned sickos outrageously fawning over the suspected shooter and reveling in the tragedy on social media, along with those taking aim at other high-profile healthcare execs.
“In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson’s killing, we have seen a shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder. Social media has erupted with praise with this cowardly attack,” Tisch told reporters, describing the brazen murder as a “cold calculated crime that took a life and put New Yorkers at risk.”
“People ghoulishly plastered posters threatening other CEOs with an X over Mr. Thompson’s picture, as though he was some sort of a sick trophy,” the top cop said. “These are the threats of a lawless, violent mob who would trade their own vigilantism for the rule of law that protects us all.”
The masked gunman shot Thompson from behind, striking him in the back and leg according to the indictment. The words “DENY” and “DEPOSE” were written on two of the shell casings, and the word “DELAY” was splayed on a bullet.
The assassin led police on a five-day manhunt after fleeing on an e-bike uptown, getting into a taxi that dropped him off at West 178th Street and Amsterdam Ave, and later fleeing the state, authorities said.
Mangione had checked in at the HI New York City Hostel on the Upper West Side more than a week before the murder using a fake New Jersey ID under the name Mark Rosario – for a stay he extended multiple times, prosecutors said.
He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Dec. 9 after a customer recognized him from surveillance images of the suspect released by the NYPD, authorities have said.
Police said they found a ghost gun and silencer, a loaded Glock magazine and multiple fake IDs in his backpack.
Ballistics from the ghost gun matched the shell casings recovered from the crime scene, with Mangione’s fingerprints matching a water bottle and a granola bar wrapper found near the crime scene, according to police.
Mangione also had a handwritten manifesto-type document addressed to “the Feds” that mentioned UnitedHealthcare and accused health insurance companies of corporate greed, prosecutors said.
He is being held at the State Correctional Institution in Huntington, Pennsylvania after a judge denied him bail.
The accused killer, who has challenged extradition orders that seek to bring him back to the Big Apple, may abandon his fight during a court proceeding scheduled in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Bragg has said.
