Credit: The International New York Times
New York: The suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO on a Manhattan sidewalk this month will now face federal charges in addition to the state murder indictment brought against him, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
It was not immediately clear what charges the suspect, Luigi Mangione, would face in the federal case, which is being brought by prosecutors with the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. On Tuesday, state prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg indicted Mangione, 26, on three murder charges in the shooting of the executive, Brian Thompson, two of which branded him a terrorist.
Federal charges, though, would potentially allow prosecutors to pursue the death penalty, which has been outlawed in New York for decades. It was not clear whether federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty, and any decision about capital punishment would most likely fall to the Justice Department once President-elect Donald Trump has taken office.
A spokesperson for the US attorney in Manhattan declined to comment. The highest penalty Mangione would face if convicted in state court would be life in prison without parole.
"The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case," said Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office.
"This defendant brazenly shot Thompson point blank on a Manhattan sidewalk," Filson said. "The Manhattan DA's office, working with our partners at the NYPD, is dedicated to securing justice for this heinous murder with charges of murder in the first degree."
Mangione's lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement that the Southern District's involvement in the case raised a number of troubling issues.
"The federal government's reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns," the statement said. "We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought."
The federal charges are the latest development in a case that has mesmerized Americans in the weeks since the December 4 predawn killing of Thompson.
Surveillance footage showed a person walking up behind Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, lifting a handgun fitted with a suppressor and shooting him several times before fleeing the scene.
Authorities have said that it was Mangione who waited outside the hotel early that Wednesday morning for nearly an hour until Thompson arrived for a UnitedHealthcare investors' day gathering. As Thompson approached the entrance of the hotel, he was shot once in the back and once in the leg.
According to authorities, Mangione fled uptown on an e-bike and soon left the state.
Almost immediately, the police began a search for the gunman, canvassing the city and releasing images of the person being sought. In the days that followed, investigators released more pictures, including one of the person believed to be the shooter revealing his smiling face momentarily at the hostel where authorities said he had spent 10 days before the killing.
Mangione was arrested days later, as he sat at a McDonald's in Altoona, eating hash browns and looking at his laptop, when a fellow customer remarked to a friend that he resembled the person in photos the police had shared. An employee who overheard the conversation called the police.
Mangione was found with a handgun, ammunition and fake identification cards -- including one that had been used to check into the hostel in Manhattan, according to authorities. Also found with him was a 262-word handwritten note police described as a manifesto, in which authorities have said Mangione appeared to take responsibility for the killing.
Mangione, who also faces gun and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, is expected to be extradited to New York after a hearing there Thursday morning.
The news of the federal charges was first reported by The New York Post.
In announcing the 11-count state indictment, Bragg called the attack "a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation."