Luigi Mangione latest: UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect fights extradition as he rants outside court
Luis Mangione, 26, is fighting extradition to New York where he faces a second-degree murder charge in connection to the slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
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Luigi Mangione faced an extradition hearing Tuesday in Pennsylvania after New York prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder in connection with last week’s brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
As Mangione was escorted in handcuffs into the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, he yelled: “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!”
Mangione was denied bail and is fighting extradition. His lawyer said he expects the suspect to plead not guilty.
Mangione will remain in a Pennsylvania jail as he fights being brought to New York to face charges.
The New York counts were filed against the 26-year-old after he was captured at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday. He was initially hit with separate weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania not directly related to the shooting.
Just two weeks before the UnitedHealth CEO was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan, Mangione’s mother, Kathleen, reported him missing to San Francisco police on November 18, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Luigi Mangione shouts about ‘insult to the American people’ as he’s dragged into court by police
Value of Luigi Mangione ‘meme coins’ soar as he faces murder charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Who is Luigi Mangione: What to know about man charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting death
Who is Brian Thompson? Everything we know about the UnitedHealthcare CEO and his murder in New York City
Multiple ‘meme coins’ inspired by Luigi Mangione hit market
Crypto enthusiasts have created multiple new “meme coins” themed on the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The new assets include a meme coin called “Deny. Defense. Depose,” after the words reportedly inscribed on bullet cases found at the scene of the shooting.
Another is simply named LUIGI, presumably for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with Brian Thompson’s killing.
LUIGI soared to a $60 million market capitalization in a matter of hours after being launched, according to crypto news site 99 Bitcoins.
“Some will call him a terrorist, some will call him a hero,” one crypto trader wrote on X. “Either way he will make you think about today’s society.”
Bail should have been set, Mangione’s attorney says
The attorney for murder suspect Mangione said he believes the judge should have set bail for his client.
Mangione faces a second degree murder charge, among others in New York, along with firearm charges in Pennsylvania. He was denied bail on Tuesday.
“To simply say no bail, with all due respect to the judge, I believe bail should have been set,” Dickey said.
“The judge could set a $1 million bail. It could be $5 million bail, but damn it, you get bail. That’s what you do.”
Mangione’s attorney said he’s ‘looking forward to helping him out’
Tom Dickey, Mangione’s attorney, told reporters that he has a “strong bond with his client and that he is “looking forward to moving forward and helping him out.”
Dickey, an attorney based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, confirmed earlier that he was retained to represent Mangione in the case.
He would not say, however, whether or not he was hired by the suspect’s prominent family.
“We’re going to fight this along the rules and with the constitutional protections that my client has,” Dickey said of the fight against extradition to New York.
Who gets the reward money for the capture of Mangione?
The FBI and the NYPD Crime Stoppers Unit offered a combined reward of up to $60,000 to help capture the suspect in CEO Brian Thompson’s murder.
Now that Luigi Mangione has been arrested, there’s is a question of who can claim the reward money.
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized Mangione from the news on Monday and alerted an employee, who called the police “to check it out further.”
So who can claim the reward money?
Both the “customer at the McDonald’s” and “the McDonald’s employee that called 911 and reported this individual inside of their restaurant” were thanked by Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner, at a news conference Monday. He did not name them.
According to CNN, it could take months for the individual or individuals to successfully claim the $60,000 reward. And we may never know who they are.
Luigi Mangione shouts about ‘insult to the American people’ as he’s dragged into court
Mangione struggled with police and shouted about an “insult to the American people” as officers forcibly led him into a Pennsylvania courtroom for an extradition hearing Monday afternoon.
He appeared at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg this afternoon in handcuffs and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
“It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” Mangione shouted after stepping out of a police car.
He was flanked by several officers who pushed him towards the door.
Rhian Lubin reports:
Luigi Mangione shouts about ‘insult to the American people’ as he’s led into court
Luigi Mangione appeared at the Blair County Courthouse this afternoon in handcuffs and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit
High school classmate speaks out about Luigi Mangione after ‘surreal’ arrest
A high school classmate of Luigi Mangione said the news “came out of nowhere,” and described the situation as “just, really surreal.”
“He had a lot of things going for him,” Ellison Jordan, who graduated from the Gilman School alongside 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, told The Independent. “He was always cool people.”
Jordan attended Gilman, a prestigious all-boys prep school in Baltimore, with Mangione, and found him to be “a smart dude,” and “a regular guy,” he said on Tuesday.
Justin Rohrlich reports:
Classmate speaks out about CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione after ‘surreal’ arrest
“I hope he didn’t do it. I’m praying he didn’t do it. It’s still ‘allegedly,’” Gilman School graduate Ellison Jordan told The Independent.
Mangione silent as he’s escorted out of courthouse after hearing
Luigi Mangione yelled out and struggled against officers as he was escorted into the courthouse in Pennsylvania for his extradition hearing on Tuesday.
But he was silent as he was led out of the courthouse into a police car where he will now be transported to Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, a state prison about 25 miles away.
White House denounces killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the White House on Tuesday denounced the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“And so, while we’re certainly not going to comment on the investigation, we condemn — we condemn violence in the strongest term,” Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“Obviously, this is horrific. Violence to combat any sort of corporate greed is unacceptable. I’m going to let the investigation move forward, and I’m not going to speak to any manifestos or anything that is coming out to this.”
Jean-Pierre also offered her condolences to Thompson’s loved ones and said the federal government stands ready “to provide further support if needed” to local and state authorities, CNN reported.
Prosecutors will seek governor’s warrant to extradite Mangione to NY
Prosecutors will seek a governor’s warrant to extradite Mangione to New York from Pennsylvania, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed to NBC New York after the suspect’s court appearance.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will submit the warrant for Mangione.
At the hearing on Tuesday, he was denied bail on felony charges of forgery and carrying a firearm without a license.
Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks told reporters after the hearing that he believes the New York charges take precedence as “there is no more significant assault than homicide” but added: “That doesn’t mean we’re getting rid of our charges.”
Luigi Mangione’s former college classmate remembers him as a ‘nice, shy’ guy who never gave off a ‘creepy Unabomber vibe’
Luigi Mangione was a nice, shy guy, “like a typically socially awkward engineer” in college, a class of 2020 Penn State classmate told The Independent’s Kelly Rissman following Mangione’s arrest.
When the news broke, the former classmate couldn’t believe it.
“It’s really shocking…He never gave off a weird, creepy, Unabomber vibe” in college, she said.
Mangione didn’t post passionately about social causes in undergrad, so “I guess something really took a turn,” she added.
He has now been charged with murder in connection to CEO Brian Thompson’s death.
“I don’t think I’ll 100 percent believe [he did it] until it’s confirmed,” the former classmate said.