Luigi Mangione has been accused of terrorism in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The indictment, released Tuesday evening, lists 10 charges and 11 counts, including one for first degree murder “in furtherance of an act of terrorism” and “murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism.”
Mangione is also charged with possession of forged instruments, several for weapons possession, committing murder “with intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion, and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping,” and simply with “murder in the second degree.”
In a press release, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that Mangione faces “a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.”
Separately, Bragg told a press conference that murder in the second degree carried a mandated sentence of life without parole with “no discretion for the judge at all.”
“One charges that the killing was done as an act of terrorism, and the second [pertains] to the fact that the killing was intentional,” Bragg said. “In its most basic terms, this was a killing that intended to evoke terror.”
Mangione’s lawyer, former Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment on the charges.
It’s unclear how exactly Mangione’s alleged crime was intended to “influence the policy of a unit of government,” which companies such as UnitedHealthcare are not, or “intimidate” the civilian population. Rather, Mangione’s alleged act appeared to have been planned to target a specific class of individuals who profit exorbitantly off of the suffering of the civilian population.
“The ruling class is treating killing one of their own, with the motive being related to the evils of our health care system, as a fundamentally different act than if you or I were to be murdered,” wrote journalist J.P. Hill on X Tuesday.
Mangione was reportedly discovered with a manifesto admitting to having worked alone, and explaining why he allegedly committed the violent act.
“I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done,” Mangione wrote. “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
