Luigi Mangione, the main suspect in the shooting death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in midtown Manhattan (New York) earlier this month, was formally charged this Tuesday with one count of first-degree murder.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Mangione with two other counts of second-degree murder, as well as several counts of forgery and illegal possession of weapons, according to a statement reported by CNN.
Bragg has called the shooting “premeditated” and assured that it was “well planned”, while also aiming to “cause shock, attention and intimidation”, as it occurred in one of the “busiest” areas of the city.
For her part, the Commissioner of the New York Police, Jessica Tisch, has indicated that the accusation allows “to reaffirm the primacy of the rule of law” in the state. “It brings us one step closer to guaranteeing justice for Brian Thompson and his family,” he added.
He also stated that the shooting was “a senseless act of violence.” “It was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk,” he said, adding that they do not “glorify the murder of anyone,” according to NBC News.
The 26-year-old, arrested last week at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, in the state of Pennsylvania, faces 20 years in prison if convicted of a charge of first-degree murder, while the second-degree charge degree carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
Mangione was carrying several false identifications at the time of his arrest, as well as a pistol and a silencer built with a 3D printer. Tisch indicated that there are matches between his fingerprints and those discovered at the crime scene.
The young man, who was born in Maryland and belongs to a wealthy family in Baltimore, attended a segregated private high school and later graduated from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, considered elite in the United States.
Mangione suffered from back pain since childhood, a health problem for which he underwent surgery. Investigators suspect that the motive for the crime would be his rejection of the insurance industry, which he accuses of corruption.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty acknowledged Friday that the U.S. health care system “is not working as well as it should.” “We understand people’s frustrations about this,” he stressed in an opinion article published in The New York Times.
Thompson, 50 years old and with a two-decade career at UnitedHealth Group, assumed the leadership of UnitedHealthcare’s insurance division in 2021. At the time of the murder he was preparing to attend the multinational’s annual investors conference.
