Suspect in Health Care CEO Murder Indicted in New York

Four days after he was picked up in Pennsylvania, the suspect in the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 outside the Hilton Hotel was formally indicted on by a grand jury in Manhattan.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged with one count of murder in the first degree, and two counts of murder in the second degree and two of the counts carry terrorism charges, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said on Dec. 17 at a press conference after the grand jury indictment was unsealed.

“The intent was to sow terror,” Bragg said. In addition to the murder charges, he faces seven counts of weapons possession and one count of using a forged instrument.

For the moment, Mangione is still being held without bail after, being picked up by police at a McDonald’s in Altoona, PA, on Dec. 9, after a nationwide man hunt over five days. Bragg suggested at a press conference on Dec. 17 that Mangione’s attorney may drop plans to oppose extradition from Pennsylvania. He is now being represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former federal prosecutor in New York who worked under Cyrus Vance Jr.

Mangione railed against the health care system in the United States, according to a three page manifesto recovered by authorities at the time of his arrest but he was not a customer of United Healthcare, the nation’s biggest healthcare provider.

In a sick twist, some had begun labeling him a folk hero and a publicity campaign had raised over $140,000 on his behalf, reportedly via deposits into his commissary account.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch blasted such behavior following the unsealing of Mangione’s indictment.

”In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson’s killing we have seen a shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder,” Tisch said. “There is no heroism in what Mangione did,” she said of the alleged murder suspect. “This was a senseless act of violence. It was a cold and calculated murder.”

”We don’t lionize the killing of anyone,” Tisch said.

Mangione allegedly arrived outside the Hilton Hotel and gunned down Thompson at 6:45 a.m. on Dec. 4 as the 50-year-old CEO and father of two made his way to an investment conference. The alleged suspect used a ghost gun with a silencer that authorities learned was made on a 3D printer, firing a number of 9mm rounds that struck Thompson once in the back and once in the right calf.

Mangione e-biked into Central Park and then made his getaway out of the state by boarding a bus at the Port Authority Bus Terminal near the George Washington Bridge at W. 178th St. within two hours of the shooting.

It was eventually learned that Mangione was from a prominent Baltimore family and had graduated as a valedictorian at Gilman School, a private all boys high school in Baltimore before attending and graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League college, where he earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in engineering, computer and information science, according to his Linkedin profile.

He had arrived in New York City via bus at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in mid-town on Nov. 24, prosecutors said and checked into the H1 Youth Hostel on Amsterdam Ave on the Upper West Side.

That was where the NYPD, after the shooting, uncovered a photo of the shooter with his mask momentarily down as he flirted with a receptionist at the hostel. It would turn out to be a vital clue.

He was said to have paid for everything with cash and used a fake New Jersey driver’s license under the name Mark Rosano that authorities said he had with him when he was captured. He also purchased a water bottle and a granola bar early on the morning of the killing and discarded them as he fled, leaving behind DNA evidence, authorities said. Cops said that two of the discharged shell casings had the words “DENY,” “DELAY” and “DEPOSE” written on them.

Mangione eluded capture for five days until he was spotted by a McDonald’s customer on Dec. 9 eating hash browns with his ever-present mask momentarily down. The customer notified a McDonald’s employee who called police.

Bragg had initially only filed charges of second degree murder and possession of a weapon last week. When the grand jury indictment was unsealed on Dec. 17, the charges had been upgraded to first degree murder with terrorism charges attatched.

If found guilty of the charges against him, Bragg said Mangione faces a mandatory life in prison sentence.