Luigi Mangione is expected to waive his right to an extradition hearing over New York murder charges, his attorney has said.
The 26-year-old was indicted on murder charges for an “act of terrorism” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and is set to appear in court in Pennsylvania on Thursday.
He may be returned to New York as soon as tomorrow, ABC reported.
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting the 50-year-old healthcare executive on the streets of Midtown Manhattan on the morning of December 4 and then eluding police for five days before he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
He was found with a 9mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges, prosecutors said. He faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun in the Commonwealth.
New York prosecutors announced the murder charges against him on Tuesday.
During Thursday’s hearing the judge must accept his waiver after which he would be transported by the New York Police Department (NYPD) from Pennsylvania to New York.
“I’m ready to bring him back here and make sure justice is served,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
The suspected shooter has retained high-profile attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him. Agnifilo previously worked at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, serving as the chief assistant district attorney for seven years, before moving to private practice in 2021.
Mangione’s supporters continue to donate thousands of dollars for his “defense” fund. The anonymous fund “December 4th Legal Committee” has amassed more than $140,000 in donations on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.
Thompson was shot while walking to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare — the United States' biggest medical insurer — was holding an investor conference.
The killing kindled a fiery outpouring of resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies, as Americans swapped stories online and elsewhere of being denied coverage, left in limbo as doctors and insurers disagreed, and stuck with sizeable bills.
The shooting also rattled C-suites, as “wanted” posters with other health care executives’ names and faces appeared on New York streets and some social media users extolled Mangione's deed as payback.
Announcing the murder charges on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson’s death on a midtown Manhattan street “was a killing that was intended to evoke terror. And we’ve seen that reaction.”
