International Courant
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of fatally taking pictures United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in an assault in Midtown Manhattan final week, has indicated he’ll struggle his extradition to New York to face homicide fees.
Mangione appeared in court docket in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a day after he was arrested within the metropolis of Altoona following a tip from a McDonald’s worker. He was charged with Thompson’s homicide in New York hours after his arrest, in addition to a sequence of lesser crimes in Pennsylvania.
Mangione stepped out of a police automotive and gave a partly unintelligible message to reporters, although he referred to an “insult to the intelligence of the American folks.”
Through the transient listening to, his lawyer, Thomas Dickey, advised the court docket that Mangione would contest extradition to New York and requested a listening to on the matter. He has 14 days to formally attraction his switch to New York, and within the meantime he’s being held with out bail in Pennsylvania.
Whereas sitting within the courtroom, Mangione wore an orange jail jumpsuit, alternating between staring ahead, wanting on the papers and looking out again on the gallery. He was at one level silenced by his lawyer when he tried to talk.
The trial got here six days after a gunman fatally shot Thompson, the pinnacle of one of many largest well being insurers in america, exterior a Midtown Manhattan lodge.
The brutal nature of the assault – and the days-long manhunt – sparked nationwide intrigue. Whereas condemning the violence, many consultants, docs and U.S. residents mentioned it was symbolic of the nation’s undercurrent of anger towards the well being care sector, the place excessive prices depart many sufferers susceptible to the desire of insurers.
Bullet casings discovered on the homicide scene bore the phrases “deny,” “defend” and “deposit,” which appeared to discuss with a phrase utilized by critics to explain how well being insurers keep away from declare payouts. The gunman fled to Central Park by electrical bicycle and later boarded a bus out of town.
Within the days following the assault, many took to social media to share tales of insurance coverage corporations denying claims. The sentiment has led authorities to organize for copycat assaults, in line with a regulation enforcement memo obtained by US media.
The White Home has additionally made efforts.
“It’s clear that that is horrific,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised reporters on Tuesday. “Violence to fight any type of greed is unacceptable.”
Additional particulars emerge
The regulation enforcement memo, which was primarily based on Mangione’s writings, a few of which have been recovered on the time of his arrest, mentioned Mangione was doubtless motivated by what he described as “parasitic” medical insurance corporations and a common disregard for company greed. enterprise.
Authorities have mentioned a 3D-printed gun, a suppressor and several other pretend IDs, together with one believed to have been utilized by the attacker to verify right into a New York hostel earlier than the taking pictures, have been recovered when Mangione was arrested .
Based on the memo, Mangione had written that the US has the most costly well being care system on this planet and that company earnings proceed to rise whereas “our life expectancy” doesn’t.
The doc added that Mangione might have been impressed by so-called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whom he known as a “political revolutionary.” Kaczynski had dedicated a sequence of bomb assaults towards trendy society, expertise and environmental destruction from the late Seventies to the mid-Nineteen Nineties. Three folks have been killed in his assaults.
The profile that has emerged since Mangione’s arrest additionally exhibits some similarities to Kaczynski, who was thought-about a mathematical prodigy.
Mangione comes from an influential household in Baltimore, Maryland, and was the valedictorian at an elite prep college in Baltimore. He then earned bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in pc science from the College of Pennsylvania, a prestigious Ivy League college, in 2020.
Recognized for being affable and clever, some pals have mentioned in interviews with US media that Mangione’s perspective modified after current surgical procedure on his backbone.
“Our household is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s household mentioned in an announcement that his cousin, Delaware state lawmaker Nino Mangione, posted on social media late Monday.
“We provide our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson, and we ask folks to hope for everybody concerned.”
Accused UnitedHealthcare attacker Mangione fights extradition to New York | Crime information
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