On December 18, 2024, suspected gunman Luigi Mangione, accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was officially charged with murder by prosecutors on Tuesday, December 17.
According to Reuters, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg stated in a press release announcing the charges, “This premeditated, targeted gun violence cannot and will not be tolerated.”
The prosecutor mentioned that Mangione is facing charges of first-degree and second-degree murder, as well as illegal possession of a weapon.
The 26-year-old Mangione graduated from the Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science.
In the early hours of December 4, Thompson was shot and killed outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. He was preparing to attend an investor conference hosted by his company at the Hilton Hotel at the time.
Mangione, the suspect, was arrested on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after being reported by a McDonald’s employee.
According to Mangione’s friends and social media posts, he suffered from chronic back pain, which impacted his daily life. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the healthcare system in a document he wrote himself, leading to speculations about this being a possible motive for the suspect’s actions.