A Manhattan grand jury on Tuesday indicted Luigi Mangione on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, accusing him of killing to further “an act of terrorism,” according to court documents.
Mangione faces 11 counts, including one of murder in the first-degree and two of murder in the second-degree in Thompson’s killing on December 4 in New York, along with other weapon and forgery charges, the indictment says.
The first-degree murder charge alleges the 26-year-old killed Thompson “in furtherance of an act of terrorism,” which is legally defined as an intent to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or a government unit. One of the second-degree counts also alleges Mangione committed murder “as a crime of terrorism.”
“This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
The shooting happened “in one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike, and commuters and business people just starting out on their day,” Bragg said.
Mangione is not going to fight extradition to New York, his lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo told CNN. He is set to appear in a Pennsylvania court for an extradition hearing on Thursday during which a judge will rule on the next steps for him to return to New York to face the indictment.
He faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted, Bragg’s office said.
Investigators in New York say Mangione, a former high school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate born into a well-to-do family, appeared to be driven by anger against the health insurance industry and “corporate greed,” according to an New York Police Department intelligence report obtained by CNN.
The killing of Thompson, a husband and father of two, has laid bare many Americans’ fury toward the health care industry and struck fear in C-suites across the country. The NYPD intel report warns that online rhetoric could “signal an elevated threat facing executives in the near-term.”
Bragg said, “This was a killing that was intended to evoke terror and we’ve seen that reaction. This was not an ordinary killing. Not to suggest that any killing is ordinary, but this was extraordinary.”
In the weeks since Thompson’s killing, officials have seen a “shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Tuesday. “Social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack.”
“It was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk,” Tisch continued. “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.”
A charge of murder in the first degree is rare because it requires special elements related to the crime to be charged.
Under New York law, murder in the first degree only applies to a narrow list of aggravating circumstances, including when the victim is a judge, a police officer or a first responder, or when the killing involves a murder-for-hire or an intent to commit terrorism, CNN has reported.
The intent to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” – at the root of the terrorism statute – is “borne out” in the sustained increase in concern among CEOs and corporations since the killing, said Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner of the NYPD’s Intelligence & Counterterrorism unit.
“We’ve had real world activity that the police commissioner flagged, which is abhorrent, and it causes concern,” Weiner said.
CNN’s Elizabeth Hartfield contributed to this report.
