Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg vowed to extradite UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's suspected killer to New York so he could face justice.
"We will get the defendant here and get him to justice through our court proceeding," Bragg told ABC News Wednesday, saying that the suspect, Luigi Mangione, could face additional charges beyond the second-degree murder charge for the killing of Thompson.
"As we learn more about motives and other things like that ... there may be additional charges," Bragg said.
In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Mangione is charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree in connection with the killing, according to a warrant.
In Pennsylvania where he was arrested, Mangione pleaded not guilty to a charge of forging a document and criminal possession of a firearm. He was denied bail.
The defense attorney representing Mangione has said his client won't plead guilty to charges in New York.
Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this update.
UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione was reported missing by his mother four months ago, according to a police source with the San Francisco Police Department.
Kathleen Mangione told authorities she last spoke with her son around July 1 and that he worked at TrueCar, an online automotive marketplace. An address she gave for his workplace was permanently closed and there is no phone number, the source said.
The mother did not knw any other place her son would frequent in San Francisco.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is the police suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to a charge of forging a document and criminal possession of a firearm in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on Monday. He was denied bail.
He faces additional murder and weapons charges in New York, where authorities seek to extradite him to face justice.
NYPD say a gun recovered after Mangione's arrest in Pennsylvania matches three shell casings found at the scene where Thompson was shot.
Fox News' Michael Lundin contributed to this update.
New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner on Wednesday compared the impact of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to that of a domestic terror attack.
During a panel discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council, Weiner said that regardless of the killer's motivations, the response to Thompson's killing is similar to what law enforcement has observed after a domestic terror attack.
"That is already being reflected in this just torrent of online vitriol that we've been in the midst of since last Wednesday and the lionization of the alleged perpetrator of the murder as a hero," she said.
Authorities have charged Luigi Mangione, 26, with Thompson's murder following his arrest Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where customers recognized his face from wanted posters of the alleged killer. But since Mangione's arrest, there has been an outpouring of support for the suspected murderer from online users with grievances towards the health insurance industry.
Weiner warned that public support for Thompson's "assassination" could lead to more violence.
"This one has all the hallmarks of something that is going to inspire and contribute to a contagion effect."
{{#rendered}}Ominous "wanted" posters of CEOs have surfaced in New York City in recent days.
A TikToker first exposed the posters naming executives in the health care industry.
They contained the statements "Denying medical care for corporate profit" and "Healthcare CEOs should not feel safe" in all capital letters along with pictures.
The posters started showing up after 51-year-old UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot last week, according to the New York Sun and Newsweek.
Thompson was killed Dec. 4 when a man, whom police have since identified as Luigi Mangione, shot the UnitedHealthcare CEO outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
"We are aware of the posters and are investigating these incidents," a spokesperson for the NYPD's Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information told FOX Business.
FOX Business' Aislinn Murphy contributed to this post.
Pinched nerves, herniated discs, spinal fusions — if you’ve experienced any of these, the pain can quite literally impact your every move.
Dr. Betsy Grunch, also known as @ladyspinedoc on social platforms, is connecting the dots on how the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO gunman, Luigi Mangione, and his alleged back injury likely pushed him to the edge.
"Pain in general affects our mental well-being, how we go on in our day-to-day life and function. If you're reminded of an injury in your body, and you live in pain, it can be something that really rattles you," the board-certified neurosurgeon told Fox News Digital.
"In this alleged circumstance, you have a 26-year-old, fit guy that has an injury and needs care," she continued, "and he may reflect his pain on someone else or blame it on someone else. And [that] can escalate to a point of suicidal or even homicidal thoughts."
Reports have surfaced that Mangione, the former Ivy League computer scientist charged in the ambush shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, struggled with back pain and the fallout from spinal surgery.
Mangione told former roommates that he suffered from chronic back pain and a pinched nerve, according to CivilBeat, a Honolulu-based publication.
He had allegedly written online about his injury and reviewed back pain-related books on his Goodreads account, Fox News reported. Investigators were also looking into whether the health insurance industry had denied a claim from him or withheld some kind of care.
"Your spine is something that is your entire core of your body. You use it any time you stand, move, bend, twist anything. And so to have pain in [the] dead center of your body with every movement, and if you have nerve type impingement pain, it can be 10 out of 10. And for those of us that think we know 10 out of 10 pain, unless you've had an injury to your spine, you know what that's like," Grunch, who has nearly 4 million followers combined on social media accounts, explained.
"Then if you amplify that on someone that has such a life-changing event, and to think that there's no end in sight, it can be quite detrimental and life-changing."
This is an excerpt from an article by Kristen Altus.
It is unlikely but not out of the question that Luigi Mangione, who is suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, will face federal charges, and it is "fair to be concerned" that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg will "mishandle this case," former prosecutors told Fox News Digital.
Mangione was arrested by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning after a five-day manhunt when a McDonald's patron recognized his face from wanted posters.
On Tuesday, Mangione refused to waive his right to an extradition hearing in a Pennsylvania court , and his attorney said he intends to file a writ of habeas corpus challenging Mangione's arrest. Bragg and Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks are working to get the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate to New York.
"There is no obvious hook for a federal murder prosecution," James Trusty, who served as a prosecutor in Maryland for 27 years, told Fox News Digital, based on the publicly available details of the case.
However, Trusty said, evidence for potential federal charges could be found on Mangione's laptop that was seized upon his arrest.
Although federal authorities can hand down murder charges, Trusty said "the types of things that could make it go federal is if [the murder] was in conjunction with organized crime, drug trafficking or a hate crime, which has a more narrow definition than just ‘I hate insurance companies,’" Trusty said.
Members of the Altoona Police Department wrote in a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital that they found a "black 3D-printed pistol and a black silencer." Possessing such a "ghost gun" – a home-cooked weapon that is unserialized and therefore untraceable – is a federal offense, former Joint Terrorism Task Force head and Port Authority Chief Security Officer John Ryan told Fox News Digital.
But sentencing for such a charge would amount to a far shorter sentence than a murder charge at a state level, Trusty said, likely just a year behind bars.
This is an excerpt from an article by Christina Coulter.
{{#rendered}}The suspect who was arrested Monday in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a member of a prominent Maryland family that has a large business portfolio.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after he was recognized from the manhunt that began last Wednesday when Thompson was shot and killed in New York City in what law enforcement called a "targeted attack."
Luigi is the grandson of the late Nick Mangione Sr., who The Baltimore Banner reported was a multimillionaire who made his family's fortune as a developer in the real estate industry before opening other businesses and becoming a philanthropist who supported a variety of civic initiatives.
The patriarch of the family, Nick Mangione Sr. built nursing homes, hospitals and office buildings, the outlet reported.
The family acquired the Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and built it into a full-service resort and conference center that's now known as Turf Valley Resort following the addition of a hotel, spa and other amenities, according to The Washington Post. The Mangiones also built what became known as the Hayfields Country Club in 1986, which operates as a golf and wedding venue and has a residential development.
The Post also reported that the Mangione family owns an assisted-living facility, Lorien Health Services in Ellicott City, as well as radio station WCBM-AM 680, a talk radio station based in the Baltimore area.
According to The Baltimore Banner, the Mangione family's philanthropic endeavors through the Mangione Family Foundation have included donations to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, along with the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, the Kennedy Krieger Institute and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The Banner also noted that Luigi Mangione's father, Louis, and uncle, John, took over the role of handling the family's business affairs when Nick Mangione Sr. began to step back from those duties in 1995, with Louis taking the lead of Mangione Family Enterprises. The elder Mangione died in 2008.
This is an excerpt from an article by Eric Revell.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday said she expects an indictment against UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's suspected murderer, Luigi Mangione, to be issued from the Manhattan District Attorney's office "any day now."
In an interview on MSNBC, Hochul said she trusts District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office to put forth an "ironclad" indictment.
"And that's why there's been a little time. People say, 'why isn't something happened already?' You want to get this right. You don't want to have anybody, a defense attorney, be able to attack what you've done," Hochul said.
"We expect that to be issued any day now. And it's the second that happens, I'm issuing a warrant for extradition," she added.
Hochul also said she has been in contact with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro about a warrant to extradite Mangione to New York.
"I will issue it. He'll sign it. But the judge has already set a date for a hearing on December 23rd. We'll see whether that date has to hold. The governor and I both want him brought back to New York as soon as possible."
Major fundraising site GoFundMe and e-commerce retailer Etsy are cracking down on support of Luigi Mangione, the suspect arrested in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
But tens of thousands have been raised in the alleged killer's defense elsewhere.
Following Mangione's high-profile arrest earlier this week and being charged with the health insurance executive's slaying, fundraising campaigns and merchandise celebrating the accused killer as a hero began cropping up online.
GoFundMe says it has removed all fundraisers dedicated to Mangione on its site, telling FOX Business in a statement, "GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes. The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded."
TMZ reported Tuesday that within hours of Mangione being identified, merchandise celebrating the suspect flooded Etsy, including shirts, cups and even Christmas ornaments.
But Etsy appears to have removed all Mangione-themed offerings as of Wednesday morning. The company did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
Meanwhile, GiveSendGo appears to be allowing fundraisers for Mangione's defense. One fundraiser on the site, which was launched Dec. 4 — the day of Thompson's murder — is still going strong and has raised nearly $30,000 of its $200,000 goal.
This is an excerpt from an article by Breck Dumas.
{{#rendered}}While UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's alleged killer's motive has not been released by officials, the public has been speculating that the suspect had strong grievances with both the health care industry and capitalism in general.
Authorities arrested Luigi Mangione, 26, in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, at which point he allegedly presented local police with a fake ID and appeared to start shaking when they asked if he had been in New York recently.
Authorities also found a handwritten manifesto condemning the health care industry, as NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny previously told Fox News. The manifesto specifically mentioned UnitedHealthcare.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of New York City's Guardian Angels, told Fox News Digital that "in every era, there are people who go out, take the law into their own hands, and they become heroes."
"In this case, I think what is most stunning to me is the number of women who have embraced Luigi not because he is a good-looking guy with abs, but rather because of what they believe is this tremendous overreach, especially if this particular health care company in which you have so many denials of procedures that had been guaranteed," Sliwa said.
He added his belief that the anger regarding the health care industry that has surfaced from Thompson's murder is misplaced.
Nicholas Creel, associate professor of Business Law and Ethics at Georgia College & State University, told Fox News Digital that "America is currently in a period of rising populist sentiment, one where anger at elites, particularly wealthy corporate executives, is increasingly common."
"This explains why so many people across social media began expressing support for Luigi Mangione’s actions as soon as they learned who his victim was," Creel said. "A health insurance CEO is perhaps the pinnacle of a wealthy elite that many now see as being responsible for their financial troubles, so it is anything but surprising to see so many people identifying more with the criminal than the victim in this case."
This is an excerpt from an article by Audrey Conklin.
Blood is thicker than a viral surveillance image of a suspected killer grinning at a flirty clerk in the lobby of a New York City hostel.
Luigi Mangione, the former Ivy League computer science major now suspected of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the back in New York City has dozens of cousins in his prominent Maryland family. But none of them appear to have recognized him after his smiling face went viral in connection with a nationwide manhunt that ended Monday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told "Your World" host Neil Cavuto that of more than 200 tips police received in the case, none of them named Mangione.
One of Mangione's former high school classmates had a simple explanation – the suspected assassin is most recognizable for his dark, curly hair, which was covered up in images that the NYPD released before his arrest.
"I think when something so large-profile happens naturally, I automatically disregard that," former classmate Freddie Leatherbury told "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. He figured it could have been anybody – but not someone he knew.
"And the thing that I remember about Luigi, if anything, was his really distinct curly hair, and in all the security camera footage, all you saw was him with a hat on or a hood on," he said. "That wasn't a connection that I was making. And, of course, Italians in New York are a dime a dozen. So just the jaw structure alone, the face, that wasn't a connection that I was really rushing to make. So I really just brushed it off when I saw it, to be honest."
Still, law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital Monday that it was Mangione's distinctive eyebrows and the medical mask that made him stand out to customers and locals at an Altoona McDonald's.
This is an excerpt from an article by Michael Ruiz.
New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday that a gun recovered following Luigi Mangione’s arrest in Pennsylvania matches three shell casings found at the scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot.
“First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania. It's now at the NYPD crime lab. We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide,” she told reporters Wednesday.
“We were also able at our crime lab to match the person of interest’s fingerprints with fingerprints that we found on both the water bottle and the KIND bar near the scene of the homicide in midtown,” she added.
Tisch and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny previously told Fox News they found a burner phone and other physical evidence linked to the suspect which they were checking for prints and DNA evidence.
Altoona police likely fingerprinted Mangione after his arrest in Pennsylvania Monday on fake ID and firearms charges and uploaded them to a law enforcement database the same day, according to Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector.
{{#rendered}}UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said the company remains in a “state of mourning” over the shocking death of Brian Thompson, but that it owes it to him to “make health care work better for everybody, in every way.”
In a memo to employees, Witty described Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth insurance subsidiary, “as one of the smartest guys” and “one of the best guys.”
He vowed that the company would make good on its promise to continue offering quality healthcare to its members.
“No matter what’s happening, we’re going to be there for the moms and dads who brought one of their kids to a clinic this morning," said Witty. "We’re going to be there for the sickest and the most vulnerable among us, whose homes our nurses and case workers are visiting today.”
“We’re going to make sure medicines are filled, infusions are administered and people can navigate their therapies for the rarest states of disease,” he added. “The same people who were counting on us last week are counting on us today — none of that’s changed. Our patients, our customers, partners and clients need us to be at our very best. And then again tomorrow. The day after next. Next week. Next month. Next year.”
Witty noted that while the past few days “have been dark, our patients, members, customers are sending us light.”
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