Luigi Mangione: UnitedHealthcare CEO’s suspected killer faces federal charges after waiving extradition

Luigi Mangione has retained a top New York attorney for his legal defense in connection with the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The Independent understands that Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been officially retained to represent Mangione, 26, in New York, after the executive, 50, was gunned down outside the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan on 4 December.

Following a massive week-long manhunt, the shooting suspect was arrested after being seen eating a meal inside a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning, with an employee calling the tip into police.

Tara Cobham has the full story.

Following Luigi Mangione’s arrest, his family released a statement saying they were “shocked.”

“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione,” said the family in a statement posted on X by Luigi’s cousin Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the lower house of Maryland’s state legislature. “We only know what we have read in the media.”

Mangione’s family couldn’t merely afford medical care.

They could afford to donate more than $1 million of their own money to healthcare.

Io Dodds explores the wealthy family history of the man charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson:

Brian Thompson was laid to rest at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown on December 9.

That same day, Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with murder in connection to the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death.

The 26-year-old suspect was taken into custody in Altoona and is now being held without bond in Pennsylvania as he faces charges in two states. Mangione appeared for a hearing on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where he fought extradition to New York to face charges.

Katie Hawkinson, Madeline Sherratt and James Liddell have more.

New York Prosecutors have secured a murder indictment against Luigi Mangione, it was announced Tuesday.

According to the Associated Press, the charge is as an "act of terrorism." Mangione had already faced murder accusations, and the indictment is just a formal step in the process.

He remains in a Pennsylvania jail after being arrested there. He is fighting extradition to New York.

Mangione has been charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder as an act of terrorism, and mulitple weapons counts, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

He could face life imprisonment without possibility of parole

Watch:

A grand jury indictment in New York charges Luigi Mangione with the following:

• first-degree murder
• two counts of second-degree murder
• two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree
• four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree
• one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree
• one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree

The shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a “brazen, targeted and premeditated shooting” that was a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder” intended to cause “shock” and “intimidation,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“This type of premeditated, targeted gun violence cannot and will not be tolerated, and my office has been working day in and day out to bring the defendant to justice,” Bragg said.

The first-degree murder charge against Luigi Mangione accuses the suspected shooter of committing “an act of terrorism, involving a violent act and acts dangerous to human life” that was “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.”

The shooting was “intended to cause shock” and “intimidation,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“The intent was so sow terror,” he said.