Penn grad charged in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting contests extradition to New York; police seek tips on suspect's Pa. travels

Luigi Mangione, the University of Pennsylvania graduate accused in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shouted at TV news cameras and struggled with deputies Tuesday outside a courthouse in Blair County, Pa., moments before telling a judge he intended to fight his extradition to face murder charges in New York.

“That’s completely out of touch and an insult to the American people,” the 26-year-old suspected shooter yelled at awaiting reporters as he emerged from a patrol car moments before the court hearing. Deputies quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him inside the building.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says “violence to combat any sort of corporate greed is unacceptable” and the White House will “continue to condemn any form of violence.”

She declined to comment on the investigation into the Dec. 4 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson or reports that writings belonging to the suspect, Luigi Mangione, said insurance companies care more about profits than their customers.

Luigi Mangione's new lawyer, Tom Dickey, held a news conference Tuesday evening at his law office in Altoona and said his client was not guilty of the charges filed against him in Pennsylvania related to Mangione's arrest on Monday.

Dickey said he met with Mangione and "I'm pleased with our relationship."

One New York City software engineer spent much of Monday just like many other chronically online twenty-somethings: Scrolling through social media to obsessively follow updates on Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who allegedly shot and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.

The difference: This software engineer and Mangione followed the same path at the University of Pennsylvania, living in what is now called Lauder College House freshman year before going on to graduate with degrees in computer science from the engineering school in 2020. The engineer did not want his name used after seeing friends and former classmates inundated with calls from media outlets.

Eric Feldman, chair of the University of Pennsylvania's faculty senate and a law professor and deputy dean, said the focus really shouldn't be on Luigi Mangione's education. 

"This story is not about the Gilman School in Baltimore, where Luigi Mangione was valedictorian, and it is not about the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with two degrees," Feldman said. "It is about the terrible murder of Brian Thompson, and the unimaginable loss and grief being experienced by his loved ones. It is also about how a young man, seemingly with a great deal of promise, fell through the cracks of society, became increasingly unstable emotionally, and having lost his way embraced fringe ideas that led him to kill. The root cause of this tragedy is not to be found in his education, but in a society that too often fails those who are in desperate need of mental health care." 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would submit the required governor's warrant to extradite Luigi Mangione to the state to face murder charges in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

"I'm deeply grateful to the men and women of law enforcement whose efforts to solve the horrific murder of Brian Thompson led to the arrest of a suspect in Pennsylvania," Hochul said in a statement Tuesday. "I am coordinating with the District Attorney's Office and will sign a request for a governor's warrant to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable. Public safety is my top priority and I'll do everything in my power to keep the streets of New York safe."

Even Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro has been frustrated by the health insurance system.

Shapiro, speaking with reporters in the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg after the annual Christmas tree lighting, said he’s felt similar anger and frustration toward health insurance companies throughout his life.

But Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks says it won’t be a substantial barrier to returning Mangione to New York.

He noted that defendants contest extradition “all the time,” including in simple retail theft cases.

Thomas Dickey, Luigi Mangione’s defense lawyer, questioned whether the second-degree murder charge filed in New York might be eligible for bail under Pennsylvania law, but prosecutors raised concerns about both public safety and Mangione being a potential flight risk, and the judge denied it.

Mangione will continue to be housed at a state prison in Huntingdon.

Luigi Mangione’s defense lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the court his client wants a hearing on the extradition issue during a brief court hearing in western Pennsylvania.

He has 14 days to challenge the detention. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have a month to seek a governor’s warrant out of New York.

A customer at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested said one of his friends had commented beforehand that the man looked like the suspect wanted for the shooting in New York City.

“It started out almost a little bit like a joke, my one friend thought he looked like the shooter,” said the customer, who declined to give his full name, on Tuesday.

As police in Blair County, Pa. escorted Mangione into a scheduled Tuesday afternoon extradition hearing, the accused shooter shouted towards a crowd of news cameras lined up outside the courthouse.

Though his words were muffled by authorities who quickly ushered him inside the building, Mangione, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, appeared to shout that something was “unjust” and an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.”

University of Pennsylvania graduate Luigi Mangione, 26, faces five additional charges in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the state of New York, including second-degree murder and other weapons charges. Mangione has already been arraigned on five separate charges in Pennsylvania for criminal possession of a weapon, presenting law enforcement with false identification, and other crimes.

The criminal complaint made public by the New York Criminal Court lays out much of what the New York Police Department and federal law enforcement have made public and reiterates the evidence detectives said they used to connect Mangione to the fatal shooting.

A woman who came to the locked door at Firaxis Games, where Luigi Mangione had an internship, declined comment and a security guard in the parking lot politely asked a reporter to leave. 

Firaxis Games, located in an industrial complex about 16 miles outside Baltimore city in Sparks, Md., bills itself as a world-renowned game developer studio with a commitment to “build games that stand the test of time.” 

When Luigi Mangione was arrested on Monday, police said they found a “ghost gun” on his possession. But what is a ghost gun, and how is it different from a traditional firearm?

Ghost guns are an increasingly popular form of firearm that are assembled at home from parts. Users typically buy the gun parts online or 3D print them; Altoona police said that the gun they recovered from Mangione had been 3D printed. These DIY guns are untraceable because they do not have serial numbers, and there is no background check required to purchase the necessary parts. They are much easier to assemble than other DIY guns by design.

Luigi Mangione is scheduled to have an extradition hearing in Blair County at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, potentially clearing the way for him to be sent back to New York City to face murder charges for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione, who was arrested Monday in Altoona, had been held without bail at the Blair County prison on charges including forgery and illegal firearms possession after an employee at a McDonalds there recognized him from widely circulated surveillance stills and contacted police. He was taken into custody with a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting and a fraudulent New Jersey ID.

Luigi Mangione attended the Gilman School, an exclusive all-boys private school in Maryland. The New York Times spoke to former Gilman classmate Aaron Cranston who described Mangione as smart and ambitious.

Cranston told the Times while he’d lost touch with Mangione after they graduated high school, his name had cropped up in his life earlier in the year when he was forwarded a message from Mangione’s family.

BALTIMORE — On a foggy, chilly Tuesday morning, students at the all-boys Gilman School, where Luigi Mangione graduated as valedictorian in 2016, walked in clusters while changing classes at the college campus-like prep school in North Baltimore.

Many of the students wore khaki dress pants and some sported ties. The prestigious and pricey private school sits on a sprawling campus in Baltimore’s Roland Park section. News outlets report that tuition for the school is currently over $37,000 per year.

Maryland Delegate Nino Mangione, an elected official in that state and cousin of Luigi Mangione, released a statement on behalf of the Mangione family responding to the arrest and allegations.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.

Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Colonel Bivens said investigators were trying to retrace Luigi Mangione's travels through Pennsylvania over the last few days, including from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and finally to Altoona.

"Additionally," Bivens said, "we're also trying to determine that we don't have another actor or an accomplice out there. So this information will be used to help us prove or disprove whether that exists and whether there were any other intended targets."

The biggest break in last week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson played out in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., on Monday, some 233 miles west of where the crime occurred in Midtown Manhattan.

The Altoona Police Department arrested Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate, on firearms charges after a McDonald’s employee sent a tip to local authorities about a suspicious masked man eating at the rear of the establishment. A patron had alerted the employee.

He was raised in privilege, graduating as valedictorian from an exclusive all-boys private school in Maryland and later attending the University of Pennsylvania. Yet, he railed against class inequality and corporate America on social media, lauding Unabomber Ted Kazcynski earlier this year as a visionary with “prescient … predictions about modern society.”

As New York authorities on Monday identified Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, as “a strong person of interest” in the brazen slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, investigators sought to reconcile that apparent contradiction in his background while working to discern a possible motive.

Days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot last week outside a New York City hotel, authorities on Monday arrested a person of interest in the case in Altoona.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Blair County on charges of forgery and false identification to law enforcement and brought in for questioning after a customer recognized him “sitting there eating” and restaurant employee called the police, officials said at a news conference.