(AFP) – The man accused of gunning down a top US health insurance executive was in court on Thursday for a hearing that could see him sent to New York to face murder charges. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Luigi Mangione, 26, was escorted into the courthouse in the Pennsylvania town of Hollidaysburg under tight security.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9, five days after UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson was shot dead on a Manhattan street. He is to face two hearings on Thursday. The first is on Pennsylvania firearms and forgery charges. The second is on New York’s request that Mangione be extradited to face murder charges.
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told CNN that her client would not fight extradition to New York. Mangione faces murder charges in New York including one count of murder in the second degree as “an act of terrorism.” Thompson’s murder brought into focus widespread public anger against the US health care system, and many social media users have lionized Mangione.
Police say a “life-changing, life-altering” back injury may have motivated Mangione, although they added that there was “no indication” that he was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare. When he was arrested, Mangione had a three-page handwritten text criticizing the US health care system. Police have said that Mangione’s fingerprints matched those found near the crime scene, and that shell casings match the gun found on him when he was arrested.
© 2024 AFP
