THE man accused of assassinating the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare has returned to court after being indicted by New York City prosecutors for the brazen killing.
Luigi Mangione was escorted into a Pennsylvania courtroom on Thursday, where he is expected to waive his extradition to New York.
A cleanly shaved Luigi Mangione was pictured being escorted into the Blair County Court House in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Thursday[/caption]
Demonstrators wearing caps of the Super Mario character Luigi outside the courthouse in support of Mangione[/caption]
Pro-Mangione protesters holding ‘Free Luigi’ signs outside the courthouse[/caption]
Dozens of protesters gathered in support of Mangione outside the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, about 8 miles from Altoona, the county where the suspect was arrested on December 9.
The demonstrators waved “Free Luigi” and anti-insurance signs that read, “Murder for profit is terrorism” and “Death by denial is murder.”
Mangione, 26, was charged with 11 criminal counts, including first-degree murder in what Manhattan prosecutors said was part of an act of terrorism.
“This was a killing to invoke terror,” Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said on Tuesday.
“This was not an ordinary killing, not to suggest that any killing is ordinary, but this was extraordinary, and the New York State Legislature has set out both the paths, both the murder one and murder two.
“And this, we alleged, is squarely within those statutes which talk about intending to do exactly what we saw happen here.”
But despite law enforcement’s best efforts to demonize Mangione’s alleged crimes, the case has aroused a pack of morbid fans who have praised the suspect’s actions as heroic.
We feel his anger, his frustration.
Demonstrator Andrea Aye
Mangione allegedly waited for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson for half an hour outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown on the morning of December 4.
Surveillance footage captured the moment a masked gun snuck up behind Thompson, who was on his way to an investors meeting, before firing three shots using a 3D-printed ghost gun, prosecutors said.
Thompson, 50, was struck in the back and leg and was transported to Mount Sinai West Hospital, where he died.
‘WE FEEL HIS ANGER’
One protester outside the Blair County Courthouse on Thursday called Thompson’s killing “unfortunate” but criticized insurance companies that put “profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way – but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” the woman, who only identified herself as Natalie, told ABC News.
“We feel his anger, his frustration,” Andrea Aye, who traveled to Hollidaysburg from northern Ohio, told USA Today.
“It has definitely woke people up. We hear him.”
Bragg said Mangione methodically carried out the brazen, “well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock, and attention, and intimidation.”
New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch condemned the people who praised Mangione’s actions as courageous.
There is no heroism in what [Luigi] Mangione did.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch
“In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson’s killing, we have seen a shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder,” Tisch said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack. People ghoulishly plastered posters threatening other CEOs with an X over Mr. Thompson’s picture as though he was some sort of sick trophy.
“Let me say this plainly, there is no heroism in what Mangione did.”
Tisch added, “This was a senseless act of violence. It was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk.
“We don’t celebrate murders, and we don’t lionize the killing of anyone, and any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless, and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice.”
Prosecutors believe Mangione, a computer science graduate from the University of Pennsylvania who comes from a prominent family in Baltimore, was motivated by hatred toward the US healthcare system.
At the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying a three-page handwritten manifesto that voiced his frustration about corporate greed and branded insurance companies “parasites.”
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