Luigi Mangione Faces Federal Murder, Stalking Charges Over CEO Killing
Two days after his indictment on state murder charges in New York, Luigi Mangione was slapped with a barrage of federal criminal counts Thursday linked to the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a midtown hotel on Dec. 4. The top charge in the newly unsealed federal complaint alleges Mangione used a firearm to commit murder. While the maximum sentence for his state charges is life in prison without parole, Mangione could face the death penalty if convicted as charged in the new federal case.
According to the federal complaint obtained by Rolling Stone, Mangione, 26, also is facing one count of interstate stalking resulting in death, one count of stalking through the use of interstate facilities resulting in death, and one count of discharging a firearm that was equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence. In his parallel indictment announced Tuesday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Mangione is charged with first-degree murder and “killing as an act of terrorism.”
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Mangione made his first appearance in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon after he was arrested in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9 and waived his extradition Thursday morning. Images of Mangione’s arrival in New York showed him shackled and walking in a bright orange jail jumpsuit while flanked by heavily armed NYPD officials and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. His appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker lasted all of 15 minutes. His lawyer reportedly told the court she was blindsided by the federal charges and had never seen a case with simultaneous state and federal prosecutions like this in her decades-long career.
“These seem like two different cases,” Mangione’s lead defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo told the court, according to The New York Post. “The theory of the murder charge of the Manhattan DA case is terrorism and intimidating a group of people. This is stalking an individual.”
Federal officials saw no issue as they announced the charges Thursday. “Mangione planned his attack for months and stalked his victim for days before murdering him — methodically planning when, where, and how to carry out his crime. I am grateful to our state and local law enforcement partners for their tireless efforts to locate and apprehend the defendant and to ensure that he answers for his alleged crime,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
Acting SDNY U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said Thompson was “gunned down in cold blood” on a city street “just because” he was the CEO of a healthcare insurance company. Kim alleged the murder was “a grossly misguided attempt to broadcast Mangione’s views across the country.”
Police have said they believe the gun Mangione allegedly used to shoot Thompson was a “ghost gun” capable of firing 9 mm rounds. In a sworn affidavit incorporated in the new federal complaint, an FBI agent alleged Mangione had a 9mm pistol and silencer in his possession when he was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, some 200 miles west of Philadelphia. The agent confirmed a McDonald’s worker called police at 9:14 a.m. on Dec. 9 because they believed a male customer resembled photos of the alleged shooter broadcast in the media after Thompson’s murder.
The FBI agent also said Mangione was found in possession of a notebook and several handwritten pages expressing “hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.” According to the affidavit, one notebook entry stated, “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box.” In an entry marked Oct. 22, 2024, Mangione allegedly stated an intent to “wack” the CEO of an insurance company at an investor conference.
The affidavit further referenced the previously reported letter to federal authorities allegedly found with Mangione’s belongings. “I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: Some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience,” the letter said, according to the affidavit. It continued, “P.S. you can check serial numbers to verify this is all self-funded. My own ATM withdrawals.”
The complaint also includes an image of the fake New Jersey driver’s license with the name “Mark Rosario” that Mangione allegedly used to register at a Manhattan hostel before the shooting. It was at the same hostel where police retrieved the only images of the alleged shooter without his mask on. According to the affidavit, a desk clerk at the hostel asked Mangione to lower his mask during his check-in process. “Other than this interaction with the desk clerk, the shooter consistently kept his mask on throughout his time in New York, including while inside the hostel,” the affidavit reads.
The complaint goes on to incorporate images that purportedly show the shooter leaving the hostel at 5:35 a.m. on Dec. 4 and arriving near the murder scene in the predawn hour before the shooting. As he allegedly waited for Thompson to arrive, the shooter purchased items at a coffee shop, the affidavit claims. Other images allegedly show the shooter fleeing the scene on an e-bike headed toward Central Park. He’s seen disappearing into the park wearing a gray backpack but then exiting and traveling near West 85th Street and Columbus without the backpack, the filing claims.
Officials appeared to get a break in the case when the suspect jumped in a taxi that drove him to the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal. “The shooter’s face was captured by a camera in the taxi,” the affidavit reads in a section that includes the now infamous taxi photo allegedly showing Mangione’s distinctive eyebrows. Officials say it appears the shooter left Manhattan on a bus and that a gray backpack recovered in Central Park two days later is connected to the murder.
Pennsylvania authorities previously charged Mangione with carrying firearms without a license, possessing instruments of a crime, falsely identifying himself to law enforcement, tampering with records or identification, and forgery.
This article was updated at 8:45 p.m. on Dec. 19 to include statements from federal officials and information pertaining to the affidavit.
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